The Digital New Fronts showed another maturing stage in the development of online content. It demonstrated the continued blurring of the offline and online worlds. Television series and web series are increasingly utilizing the same talent, pursuing the same audience, and selling to the same advertisers. This blurring will continue as advances in addressable television, tablets, and over-the-top video make the distinction between digital and broadcast content disappear.
This represents both a victory and a conundrum for proponents of digital marketing. The victory rests in the growing importance of social, mobile, and online marketing in the plans of even the most traditional marketers. Several global brands are being built almost entirely on digital marketing strategies. So, as far as rising to the ranks of market importance, digital has “won.” But the conundrum is rooted in this same success for digital practitioners of every stripe. When everything and everyone is using digital, is there any meaningful distinction left in being a digital marketer?
Digital marketers used to distinguish themselves based on their mastery of channels that most other people didn’t understand. They knew how to design websites, build rich media banners, and bid on search terms. That knowledge is both more widespread and easier to tap into than ever before. That said, there is still something quite valuable about true digital marketing. It’s not about the toolset; it’s about the mindset. What is still lacking for many marketers and agencies is the mindset that comes from a digital way of looking at that world. There are four core tenets underlying the digital mindset:
Everything is Connected
The digital imperative is to constantly seek new points of connection. In marketing, digital brands find new ways to connect across multiple levels. Those connections can be made across time, people, information, and interests. In that way, it can connect brand building with sales, existing customers with potential customers, R&D with Customer Service, etc. Where traditional marketing tends to separate into channels, digital marketing is always finding new ways to link together.
Actions Trump Impressions
Traditional marketers often measure the effectiveness of their efforts by the impressions they generate. Even experiential efforts like live events are reported in terms of how many equivalent impressions they generated. The digital mindset sees value in actions. An action is a measure of commitment, while an impression is only a measure of exposure. If you’re looking to make a friend, interacting with someone will get far better results than being seen by someone. Similarly, if you can get someone to post something, share something, or like something then you are far more likely to sell something, either to that person or someone they know. In that view, getting a thousand people to do something is more valuable than getting a million people to see something.
Always Optimizing
The traditional marketing cycle is like a movie release. The marketers spend months developing a new story, work behind the scenes to perfect the details, and after several months, launch it to the world in a glorious finale. If it succeeds, you make a sequel; it if fails you start over with a new one. The digital mindset embraces the beta view of software development. The launch is seen as more a beginning than an end. By gathering feedback and measuring reactions, the first release gets tweaked and upgraded. In the digital view, a release does not have the rigidity of a final cut, but the malleability of software code.
Data is Currency
All of these elements are driven by data. To be digital, you need to be know how to harvest, process, and analyze data. And it’s not just for performance metrics. Performance measurement is vital, but data provides much more than that. Digital marketers are excited by data because it reveals new connections, shows what people are really doing, and points the way to building deeper relationships. The digital mindset not only recognizes the awesome business potential of data, but the amazing creative potential of data as well.
Having the latest digital tools doesn’t make you a digital marketer anymore than owning a chessboard makes you a chess player. For both qualifications, the proof is in how you play the game.
The Ryan Report 