Digital Marketing Magic
I never sought out to work in the world of online sales and advertising. For one, this career path didn’t exist when I was making a “what do you want to be when you grow up?” collage in second grade. The possibility had always been there.
My dad worked on computers ever since I could remember - creating and installing all sorts of software. He had his own logistics software company in Venezuela, Cardozo Sistemas. One of the first computers we had in Venezuela he made from different parts - for fun. It looked like a McGyver project of sorts!
At a very young age I learned about intranet and industrial networks, and servers - oh my! I thought that was the norm. My preteen brain thought computers were just tools we all knew how to use to make our lives easier, not something you base your career on.
It probably would have made college a bit smoother had I just studied marketing or computer science, but everything happens for a reason! Instead, a History B.A., and a Mass Communication M.A. led me to a career in digital marketing and communication… but not right away.
After taking some advertising classes in college, some media persuasion classes in grad school, and all seven seasons of Mad Men, I was just about done with the “phony” media world. I ended up working in development and fundraising in the nonprofit world right out of grad school. I loved the humanitarian spirit, helping the underdog has always been my calling. I even taught middle school art at one point! But even helping the underdog had its dark side, so I stumbled into the private sector, and digital marketing was there to catch me.
I devoured all free online resources I could get my hands on - teaching myself as much about social and content marketing strategies and tactics. You kind of have to stay that way in order to constantly improve at what you do. Invest in yourself. I recommend you set some time aside to work on your craft, whatever that may be. During my morning commutes to work, I listen to industry-specific digital marketing podcasts to stay in the know of this ever-changing field. Even when things are busy, and the days become weeks, I still carve a little window of time to learn (the more the better!).
So, what do you do?
I sometimes feel like the Chandler Bing amongst my friends and family. If asked, I’m not sure how many of them would be able to give a clear answer as to what my job entails. But that’s not all on them, I haven’t done the best job at explaining everything that digital marketing encompasses.
In simple terms, digital marketing is advertising delivered through digital channels. Channels such as social media, mobile applications, email, web applications, search engines, websites, or any new digital channel.
Curveball: digital marketing can be done both online and offline. And, both kinds matter for a well-rounded digital marketing strategy.
Digital marketing is not a straight-shot into sales, however. There are various categories under the digital marketing umbrella, each serving a purpose in a business’ sales and marketing strategy.
There are seven big categories of online marketing. Click on each category for more information from some of my favorite resources:
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Content marketing
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
Affiliate marketing
Email marketing
How do these all tie together?
Using an omnichannel approach is the way to go. Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy that organizations use to improve their user experience. Using multiple channels makes sense considering the “rule of seven”. It indicates that your audience needs to be exposed to a message in at least seven channels/times in order for the information to stick. Our brains scroll through so much information any given day, that content needs to stand out and/or hit multiple touchpoints in order to be successful.
A content marketer (category #3 on the list above), for example, can create a series of blog posts that serve to generate leads from a new ebook the business recently created. The company's social media marketer might then help promote these blog posts through paid and organic posts on the business's social media accounts. Perhaps the email marketer creates an email campaign to send those who download the ebook more information on the company. In most cases, all of these functions are performed by the same staff member.
In any given week, I can do everything from copywriting social media posts and articles, designing a new company info sheet, adding pages/content to websites, creating and tracking marketing plans, setting up an event - with meetings and calls sprinkled throughout. I am extremely grateful to do what I love every day, even if it didn’t exist twenty years ago!
If you ever need any digital marketing consulting or services, let me know! My service quotes based on per project basis. Click here for more information.
References:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-digital-marketing
