5 Digital Marketing Strategies From the Pros

Tamar Weinberg

With the digital marketing landscape in constant flux, it’s always important to keep your eye on the pulse and figure out what would work best for marketing.

I can tell you simply: what worked (October 10, 2015) won’t work today. As marketers, it’s critical for us to keep innovating to ensure what we’re doing sits above the noise and is perceived as signal. Much of today’s myths were once a little more realistic in the past, but as the landscape evolves, so do we.

As such, I’ve reviewed answers provided on knowledge sharing platform Wiselike by marketers with serious marketing chops to see what they had to say about marketing for today.

Holly Harrington, who helps Taiwan startups go global, suggested that you stay on top of the industry for trends and opportunities to seize the reigns from the competition:

In startups and in marketing, competitive advantage comes from knowing what others don’t (yet). What’s true or what works today probably won’t a month from now, and even though it may seem to take a lot of effort to stay on top of the industry, you need to know what others are doing, what they’re building, and what tactics are getting results. Knowing what’s out there can save you a lot of time searching for solutions or fresh ideas.

It’s easy to make a habit of assessing the industry on a daily basis and to sort out what’s useful and what’s just noise. It’s worth the effort.

Marcus Wickes, digital marketing entrepreneur, suggests creating high quality content that tells a story, and potentially promoting it through paid media:

I think paid social ads are the EASIEST form of marketing. If you haven’t ever logged into Facebook Ads, get your butt to a computer (it’s easier to do on a desktop not a phone) and start looking through all the amazing options. You can target just about anybody anywhere. Read a couple of articles by Jon Loomer and your mind will start spinning with all the awesome things you can do with very little money. And I don’t want to hear the excuse that you don’t have a big Facebook following. Your dollar is actually much more powerful with a small Facebook audience than big accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. Seriously, the bigger you get on Facebook, the more expensive advertising gets. So start playing around with Facebook Ads on a small account.

While paid social ads are the EASIEST and possibly the QUICKEST way to market your content, you still won’t get far if the content isn’t HIGH QUALITY. I have found that the best content I have pushed has been something that told a great STORY. Why are people willing to read a 1000 Harry Potter book but they won’t read through 2 pages of Terms of Service when submitting a form online? Because Harry’s adventures on a broomstick are more appealing than boring legal terms, that’s why! I’m not saying that anyone would every really want to read Terms of Service, but you can make most content more entertaining with a little story telling. People generally won’t remember exactly where they found an awesome piece of content (meaning they won’t remember your Facebook ad), but they’ll remember the content if it told a great story.

Chi Zhao, president of startup PR agency HokkuPR, suggests clear, concise communications and creativity:

The best marketing advice for anyone who has a great idea but no budget to hire an agency: get creative and don’t be afraid to ask.

Make sure that whatever you’re doing, you can explain it in a way that even the most furtherest-removed person from technology can understand what you do and why you’re doing.

There’s this mystical cloud that surrounds PR as though it waves a magic wand and voilà, success! But a lot of what PR/marketing folks do, you can learn on your own too and get better with time. The internet is a beautiful thing 🙂

Scott Hargis, architectural photographer, suggests to get down and dirty:  

The only thing I could say with certainty is that “passive” marketing is less effective than assertive marketing. Meaning — sending an email or mailing a postcard is fine, but ultimately you have to pick up the phone, or better yet get out there and knock on doors.

Marketer Leslie Poston simplifies the task to content and email marketing:

While I use [“full stack” marketing] skills daily, the ones I use most often, and most deeply, in the last few years are content marketing, storytelling, and deep analytics for web and mobile.

A close second to that is email marketing – as social networks come and go and hardware changes, email remains a constant. If you can master email marketing and how to develop a robust list of engaged readers, you will have a deeper relationship with your customer and potential customer over time.

Surely, every marketing approach would depend on the situation that it speaks to. But it’s also important to recognize that each approach will differ from day to day. Paid media is an important consideration; it’s not only about owned and earned media anymore. Content marketing has been seeing a great deal of visibility. But do not forget, as the landscape changes, we’re forced to follow so that our efforts are not lost. 

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