Do You Know Where You’re Going?
Kids these days.
I’ve recently noticed that my kids and their friends have no mental map of their surroundings. It’s not their fault. It’s a by-product of growing up around Google Maps and GPS navigation.
They haven’t had to find their way.
They don’t need to have context. They just want to get from point A to point B.
When I was in high school, I worked as a pizza delivery driver. Before the days of GPS, I had to learn my way around, understand what roads were parallel to each other, what roads intersected and where. I had to be able to figure out alternate routes to places if there was traffic, an accident or construction.
Showing up late with cold pizza meant no tip.
Basically, I needed to have a larger map in my head. I had to see the bigger picture.
Agencies these days.
I think some marketing agencies these days may also be missing the big picture.
They’ve learned specific tactics to go from point A to point B, but they don’t know the alternate routes to take if something goes wrong.
They may understand the tactical applications of marketing, but don’t understand the overall strategy behind what they are doing.
For example, as we mentioned in our recent blog post, a PPC campaign that isn’t producing great results may have nothing to do with the actual Adwords ads or keywords chosen. It might be because of a bad user experience on the landing page, or an offer that simply isn’t valuable enough.
You can tweak your ads all you want, but if no one is interested in your offer, your conversion rate will never improve.
Your digital marketing strategy needs to be about the bigger picture.
That means having an in-depth understanding of who exactly your buyers are, and addressing those buyer personas at their specific stage in the buyer’s journey. It means providing them with the information they need, in the format they find most engaging, at exactly the right time.
It means being able to pull selectively from an arsenal of tactics and tools to create a marketing mix that fills your sales funnel and provides you with real results.
Finally, it means having a clear goal, and being flexible enough to reach that goal however you can. Even if it means changing course.
Here at Roger West, most of our experienced team has been navigating the world of digital marketing for 20+ years. We don’t need turn-by-turn directions. We’ve got this. Let us help guide you. Let’s Talk.
Diane Callihan
With more than 20 years of experience writing for some of the country’s top brands, Diane helped to shape Roger West’s content strategy, lead generation, and PR efforts as Director of Marketing. She currently serves as President of Callihan Content Creation.