C.M.M. – A Digital Marketer’s Guide To Success

C.M.M. – A Digital Marketer’s Guide To Success

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every step you take
They’ll be watching you
– Sting

Gone are the days of Mad Men where marketers can simply release an ad and expect consumers to respond accordingly or use one-way communication tools to pressure consumers into buying their products. The marketing industry has been forced to reinvent itself, moving away from traditional marketing and mass media activities.

Ever heard of the term ‘information is power’? Well consumers have access to information..and lots of it! The nature of the internet means that product reviews, expert recommendations, store inventory and competitive pricing information are all instantly available, giving rise to an empowered consumer – as discussed in Google Analytic’s Digital Analytics Fundamentals: here.

Engaging consumers and consumer interaction has become the centre of our marketing efforts, where the term content marketing is more fashionable than Coco Chanel. Marketers are now focusing their efforts on creating quality content that fulfills a need for consumers and speaking a language that resonates with their audience.

Image Credit: Coca Cola Facebook Page

Image Credit: Sabo Skirt Instagram Account

Image Credit: Battelle Media

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However the digital age has also provided us as marketers with a powerful tool; accurate measurement. The internet has presented the opportunity to collect, distribute, analyse interpret and report consumer data using measures such as SEO, Web analytics and usability.  Chaffey et al. (2006) in their textbook, Internet Marketing discuss the importance of measurement tools to monitor the success of online marketing and implementing processes to ensure continuous improvement in digital channel performance for brands. 

I have three words for you; content, marketing and measurement – C.M.M.

Avinash Kaushik, in his blog post; See, Think, Do, Care Winning Combo: Content + Marketing + Measurement!  talks about the importance of combining traditional marketing techniques such as those used in Mad Men, the fashionable content marketing as used by Coco-Cola and Sabo Skirt and our measurement capabilities in order to be successful.

..And Avinash is absolutely right! We should not be substituting one element for another, but integrating all three.  Marketers and brands should be implementing a content strategy  followed by an investment in marketing (marketing strategy) which should then be followed by an appropriate measurement strategy.

Three sequential steps:

C. Build quality content that engages and interacts with consumers e.g. entertainment, connection, inspiration – to enhance interest and preference

M.Implement various marketing strategies e.g. advertising/promotions – to promote products and encourage sales

M. Use digital measurement strategies – to monitor/analyse the impact of  content and marketing strategies and take action based on data to improve results

What are your thoughts?

• Do you know of any brands who engage in all three content, marketing and measurement processes?
• Can you think of measurements we can use to assess the success of our content and/or marketing strategies? Which measurements should be used for each strategy? e.g.  % of interactions or # of return visits?

.. Just remember every word you say, every game you play, every click you make and every site you rate- they’ll be watching, engaging, promoting, recording and analysing YOU.