I was recently interviewd on the rise of digital marketing – it’s short and sweet!
How has digital marketing changed over the last three years?
Digital Marketing is now a proven medium. We are seeing exciting new ways to connect with the consumer, be it social media, video, podcast, mobile application or more likely, a combination of all these and more. As these evolve and provide richer and more meaningful experiences for the consumer they become more powerful as marketing tools.
How does this affect professional marketers today?
Just looking at some basic statistics is enough to get a feeling for the direction digital is going. Over 60% of UK homes have Broadband, with a government push to hit 100% by 2012. There have been around a billion apps (globally) downloaded for the iPhone with other mobile platforms gathering speed.
There are clear signals that social media is here to stay, LinkedIn has more than 50 million registered users, Facebook has over 300 million. Providers of Sales Automation tools like Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics are now building tools to track social media chatter. Dell is even using it to answer customer queries.
Josh Bernhoff (Advertising Age) predicted that digital was about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, and likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Professional marketers need to be fully aware of these channels and to be prepared to advise clients of the most effective solutions, be it traditional, digital or hybrid.
How important are digital marketing skills in today’s business environment?
If you believe the evidence, and there is no reason to doubt it, digital marketing skills have already become essential in today’s environment.
What advice would you give to marketers looking to improve their digital marketing skills and get ahead in 2010?
Do your homework. Most of the principles of traditional marketing hold good in the digital space. Do as much research as you can, look at the campaigns that inspire you and win awards and consider why they work. Consider new ways of using existing collateral, for example, embedded video and presentations in mobile platforms or geolocations to target content delivery. The possibilities are endless and we are just at the beginning of a long journey.
