Digital Marketing Reality Check: Research and Data-Orientation are More Important than Industry Experience

So, this is one of those topics that continues to rear its head with clients and prospects alike, so I thought it would be worth it to break an inaccurate assumption that is often made when brands are seeking digital marketing support.

I’m going to predicate this insight with the fact that I have been in this marketing space since before Google was born, using local service providers (phone companies) to build my first web landing page, that they hosted for my business at the time – way back in 1997. I’ve watched the digital marketing space grow and evolve into the complex and often confusing arena that it is today, and this topic has been a consistent inaccuracy throughout that tenure. I’ve also worked with national teams who have had singular industry experience, and small companies who supported diverse industries.

Here it is. Ready?

Engaging a marketer or agency who relies on marketing Analytics, Competitive and Market research are more equipped to offer your company the best service than any other agency or person who has extensive experience in your industry, but does not use data and research to build and optimize strategies.

Yeah, I know. But it’s true.

There is a great pitfall in most marketing strategies being rolled out. The “this has always worked for us” ideology is a quagmire for companies looking to compete and own more market share, and its often part of the “industry mindset” that comes from being in one space for a long time. Digital marketing is a living, breathing and evolving element of your brand’s identity and lead generation tactics, and it has to be revisited, analyzed, adjusted, and in some cases, scrapped and reworked. This means being objective about the plan, which can be difficult if a lot of time and effort went into building it or if promises of KPIs were set that had been achieved in the magical land of “before”, and team or board signoff was required to fund it.

When a marketer or agency has limited themselves to working in one vertical, with one type of audience, they have truncated their ability to a broader scope of options or ideas to build or augment plans that drive results.

And marketers themselves know it. A survey revealed that 32% of marketers identified marketing analytics and competitive insights as the most important factors in supporting their marketing strategies over the last 18 months.

This is not to say that industry experience has no value, of course it does. But it also limits perspective and almost always results in a cyclic processes that follow a truncated view of how marketing should be approached. The fact is, brand messaging, channel selection, tactical strategies, engagement potential and lead options can all be gleaned from market and competitive analysis, offering your marketing partner the details on user behavior, vernacular, drivers and detractors and positioning opportunities that they need to build an effective slew of campaigns.

If you want to get a clear understanding if how to brand, position your products and services, choose your marketing channels and develop a strong strategy, do the homework. Review:

  • The competition – how they’re marketing, to whom and where/when they’re doing it.
  • Your market – use social listening tools, polls and industry pub research to see what’s important to them and how they need it presented.
  • Your existing platforms optimizations and gaps
  • Relative products and services – do secret shopper work and get the details on your competitions positioning, pricing and offerings

I’ve worked with and for several industry-specialized agencies and have found that the singularity of their vision does more harm than good to the potential of them offering their most creative, innovative and visionary work. This is true at all levels from leadership down to account management and sales. They “know what they know” and the idea of breaking a model that is “working” is more harrowing a thought to them than decreasing client returns. I’ve seen the promise of creativity and innovation die under the wheels of known processes and ideologies, and it was a disservice to my clients and partners.

Doing the homework above gives you the edge you need and doesn’t box you in to the “this is how we do it” trap.

So, when you consider a digital marketing asset for your team or are researching digital marketing agency partners, keep in mind that, like with most of life, the ability to adapt, be diverse, innovate and bring a fresh perspective to a project or role is a positive, not a detractor. And an agency that can do that successfully irrelevant of industry is an asset your company needs.

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