Current Issues in Marketing Strategy

With the growth of online advertising vehicles (PPC, SEO, social media, content network) fully Integrated marketing campaign are becoming a thing of the past. Instead we are seeing more and more companies 'test' each and every vehicle by themselves and draw to broad conclusions on whether they work or not. It is almost as if we as marketers have regressed into the dark ages of blanket advertising. A much better strategic marketing solution utilises all media to leverage each other constantly positioning your brand in front of consumers and giving them every opportunity to engage with your company.

An integrated campaign is one that effectively manages media to support one another. For example, a university runs print, radio & TV campaigns, they get picked up by the free press and stimulate conversation amongst consumers, how do you capture this online?

Marketing 101 would say "set up a website and advertise the URL". Surprisingly enough, consumers don't remember many URL's, which is why the powerful ones like 'bikes.com' cost hundreds of thousands to purchase, so Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will help to position your brand at the top of Google for a few key phrases like "university courses", but this is not the end of the story. Consumers can search in a million different ways, so Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is effective at listing the company under thousands of other potential related searches. This campaign may also be supported by contextually matched banner and content ads on the Google, Yahoo or Adconian networks.

The next step is retargeting, this is going back to the people that have clicked through to the website through any of these means (or directly typed in the URL) and retargeting them with banner and text ads until they go back to the site and complete the task you want them to, for example filling out a registration form.

This is a very basic and linear solution, there are many many more strings we could add to the bow, but the point is made. Don't fall into the trap of simply running a PPC campaign and hoping that it will work, even if it does, you are missing out on achieving your full potential as a company.

Marketing, traditional or online, continues to perform best when integrated into a strategic advertising solution. There is nothing particularly about what I have written, yet 90% of the clients I see have never thought about more than PPC or SEO advertising. Think outside the square and challenge yourself. If you have any questions, my mobile is always turned on.