Time is of the Essence

Digital agencies tend to forget that our primary objectives in marketing should be to drive consumers to take action, i.e. purchase and as well keep them engaged, i.e. provide provide information or entertainment. In order to do this online, we must bring them to your business, either at the door (yes your front door) or your website.

Consumers can come through many doors online; google, facebook, twitter, blogs, social media, there are just so many new media windows that you an take part in today. The two pillars of online communication are “permission”, do you have their permission to connect and secondarily, “content”, do you provide something remarkable, blog, video or audio.

There are traditional marketing tactics that have been successfully adapted for online use;

1) Cross channel promotion
2) Display advertising
3) E-mail marketing (direct mail)
4) SEM (search engine marketing) using text based ads, Google and Cost per click (CPC)
5) Affiliate Marketing.

Each have these tactics have been and continue to be successful in driving traffic to your business. Again things are changing, going forward we need, all of us, need to review and implement “Online Conversational Tactics” as well as the traditional forms. Our businesses need to become sources of information and insight. We do this by implementing a number of new tactics;

1) Blog
2) Micro Blog (Twitter)
3) Podcasts
4) Social Networking (Facebook, LinkedIn)
5) Sharing sites (Youtube, flickr)

As well, lessor used tactics, ie User Generated content, Wikis & Widgets (also know as Gadgets or mobile apps).

The perception is that digital media is cheap and fast, yes some things are fast, put up your site, start you blog, implement your presence on facebook and twitter all fast, even driving traffic with PPC (pay per click) advertising … HOWEVER, this is just not the case … digital media is about being slow, nice and slow … it takes time to earn trust and respect, it takes time to connect, share, build and grow with others.

My point, is as you move forward with your online conversational programs, make sure that you goal is about driving consumers to take action, just be aware that you are not going to see sharp spikes in activity as you get started (like you would see with a traditional printed direct mail campaign),  this time the drive is going to take time, you need to consistently deliver real tangible content and information. Mitch Joel refers to this “gaining the efficiencies of slow”

The most important issue is trust as I have written before, and trust is built slowly over time. In the digital space, there is no such thing as an overnight sensation, things will take time; all the more reason for you to get your digital agency and your team started. Although this is a slow process, time is of the essence.

Michael Bickerton, Raven5, May 2010

---

View All