Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is an emerging field where technology innovations are applied to the business activity of marketing. Digital marketing disrupts classic marketing techniques, but you shouldn’t ignore past marketing theories when applying the new technology.

You will find information and links for Digital Marketing, Classic Marketing and Omni-Channel marketing below. Explore the information and give us feedback if you feel we’ve missed something important. If you’d just want to start a conversation, that’s great too!

Digital Marketing Platform

It is critical for you to use Digital Marketing in your marketing mix to connect with today’s customers online. But what does this mean when it comes to making it real? A digital marketing platform is a technology architecture that will help you send and control your message to the right people on the Internet. Creating an online message and starting a conversation is how you retain and build revenue.

The Modshopr’s Digital Marketing Platform contains six parts that need to be considered when deciding what to include in your online marketing mix: Web Design (with conversions), Analytics, Content Marketing, SEO, Social Media and Demand Generation with digital advertising.

Digital Marketing Architecture

It may be expensive to do all of it at once, so take your time. Build and test one piece at a time. Your own digital marketing platform can be built over time. If you know where you’re going, you won’t have to throw away expensive software tools that don’t fit into the larger picture.

Digital Marketing with WordPress from WordCamp Toronto:

Web Design

Web Design is the most critical component of the Digital Marketing Platform. Good web design has many significant aspects, but from a marketing standpoint, achieving a conversion is the most important. A conversion is the ability of a website to help a visitor take a desired action. For a business, a sale is the ultimate desired conversion, but intermediate steps may be required before the sale e.g. signing up for an email newsletter or getting contact information for a lead. A website without conversion points is nothing more than a passive business card or printed brochure.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Announcing Google Optimize: Smart, Fast-Acting Analytics — For Everyone
Google Optimize
Tim Ash Landing Page Optimization
Wired: The A/B Test
Conversion Tracking

Jonathan Mendez
Site Tuners
VKI Studios
WiderFunnel
Advanced Web Metrics
Ophir Prusak 1 Analytics Impact
a/b Always Be Testing (Pg 67, 69, Chapters 8-9 and Section II)

Classic Conversion Funnel:
Total Users -> Viewed Products -> Add to Shopping Cart -> Shopping Cart -> Checkout Options -> Shipping Options -> Billing Options -> Order Summary -> Order Confirmation

Persuasion Funnel:
Driving Points -> Funnel Point -> (nonlinear) Waypoints & Points of Resolution -> (linear) Conversion Beacons -> Conversion Point

Content Marketing

Blogs, PodCasts & Video Blogs
Need recording equipment, editing software and publishing infrastructure
Blogs – website & WordPress
Podcasting – Skype, Pamela, Pamela2, Audacity, post on iTunes
Video Blogging – Skype, Video Editor, post on YouTube, Magnify

Pre-roll, post-roll and overlay

Long form video – used to build an audience over time and then converting into revenue (ad revenue, affiliates, or speaking engagements)
Short form video – 3mins or less, informs and/or entertains, stands on it’s own (no history or context needed), e.g. vast majority of youtube videos, short form is closer to traditional TV commercials but you have a bit more time but easier to click away
Hybrid – use both long form and short form videos
Content Marketing
Content Marketing Institute
Copyblogger: Content Marketing

Analytics

Using analytics to track user behavior on your website is the difference in using your website as a marketing brochure vs. using it as an active marketing platform. It’s not good enough to track how many site visits you get. You need to track conversion points to ensure you marketing investment is achieving the results you expect.
The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics
Google Analytics: First Steps
Get Started with Google Analytics
Online-Behaviour

Mobile Ad Banners
iAd (Apple)
AdMob

Advertising Network

Markets are Conversations

Dark Patterns

Dark Patterns: fighting user deception worldwide
Dark Patterns: inside the interfaces designed to trick you
7 Black Hat SEO Tactics to Avoid
Doc Searls – Advertising 2020
Separating advertising’s wheat and chaff

Classic Marketing

Marketing Mix
The four P’s
Purchase Funnel

Brand Advertisers vs. Direct Marketers
Brand Advertisers (historical most ad money spent here) – TV, print, outdoor advertising -> CPM
Direct Marketers – infomercials, catalogs and direct mail -> CMA or CPC (performance marketers)
Hybrids
What will happen with Pull Marketing?

Hard Sell vs Soft Sell or both
Hard Sell – infomercials, long form sales letters and persistent aggressive sales calls
Soft Sell – focus on the product, needs of potential clients and letting demand build organically instead of by force
Soft Sell may be better with Social Media. Hard sell interrupts the normal interaction and conversation between social network members. Soft sell means becoming a member of the community not just marketing to it. It takes more time, effort, creativity, but has far greater long-term potential. Filling a social network conversation channel with too much marketing may annoy the receipients of the messages.

Marketing Books

According to Kotler
Call To Action
Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day
Google Book Search: Consumer Behavior
How to Get People to Do Stuff
Internet Marketing from the Real Experts
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Kotler on Marketing
Permission Marketing
Principles of Marketing
The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook

Omnichannel Marketing

Omnichannel marketing can be called by different names like multi-channel marketing, cross-channel marketing, etc. Essentially, it is the problem of how to integrate classic marketing channels with digital marketing channels. Since classic marketing and digital marketing are complex each on their own, integrating offline and online marketing channels is the ultimate in a design challenge.
Cross Channel UX Design
Direct Marketing
How To: Blog
Introduction to Blogging
The Modern Marketing Model (M3)
Waiting For Your Cat To Bark
Call to Action