Infatex Blog

Business Best Practices for 2013 Digital Strategy

Going by the statistics revealed by the 2012-year report on IAB Internet Advertising, there is some good news for the digital marketers. The investment in digital media has increased and if the current trend continues, there is a good possibility that this industry will further record an increasing growth trend. The year 2012 recorded a 22% increase from the prior year which is a quite a motivating figure for the digital marketers functioning via different channels.

The investments in the digital media have shown an increase across the board in 2012 as per the IAB report:

• The investments in the mobile niche, which is perhaps the fastest progressing sectors of all, recoded a 149% increase.
 
• The digital video sector had an increase of about 29% that was about $ 1.8 billion revenue.
 
• The search revenues have increased by 27%, which is approximately $ 14.8 billion revenue.
 
• The display re-targeting recorded a 15% growth
 

While these statistics indicate a very positive picture in the field of digital marketing, it does pose some problems. These numbers also indicate a major problem in the marketing or advertising departments of some of the major brands the world over. The fact is, while the investment in digital marketing is growing; the brands are still unable to tap the market’s true potential for lack of having a holistic strategy in the digital marketing strategies.

 
According to the study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) counci – Integrate to Accelerate Digital Marketing Effectiveness – which was released on May 29th, 2012; only about 9% of the digital marketers that were surveyed stated that they had evolved their digital marketing approach with a demonstrated strategy while 36% of these digital marketers mentioned that they randomly adopt marketing solutions which aren’t well integrated.

Most digital marketers focus on the importance of scaling their marketing efforts in accordance with the projects that they have. This is perhaps the reason why they may select a big management technology or approach for larger companies while overlooking the fact that the technology can always adapt.

Providing Easy Information

With marketing, that’s what is done. It is our aim to provide information to people readily so that they can quickly find data that they have been looking for.
There are quite a few options that we can use to make the data readily available. The use of paid search ads for the products or services that we offer can be just one the many alternatives. We also use the search engine optimization technique and other local marketing tactics to ensure that our customers (local) are able to find our stores or business place without any trouble. We also use mobile marketing to target the local customers by offering those deals and promotions in the form of text messages or promotional calls so that they are made aware while they are on the go.
 

There are many more such examples of how the marketers try to establish a connection with their present and potential customers. With these efforts, they basically help or make the customers aware of the information, data, products and services that they need and which the marketers can source for them.
 

The problem however; arises when each of the marketing channel stores its respective data individually. This results in duplicate information being provided to the consumers which often results in confusion and misinformation. It becomes rather difficult to maintain data accuracy and integrity when the various marketing channels manage data independently.

Creating a Single Data Source

Considering the above factors, every marketer will want all the data to be stored at one place in a single location. By achieving this, the data can be well maintained by continuously checking on its accuracy and versatility. This data can be used for everything – from local search to search engine optimization or paid search. This data can also be later used for any futuristic advertising or marketing application like a digital bill board or even, neurological advertising.
 

There are various marketing automation tools that can help in this unification of all data at one source. There have been major developments in this arena particularly in the SEO and local search niches.
 

Marketing automation tools and technologies are now used by some of the best brands all over the world. These technologies help in taking off the workload by using data which is unified and sourced together. Take for instance the location information. The CMO’s across the world are using the marketing automation technology to help the various local small businesses, dealers, agents and franchises to effectively run their marketing campaign by centralizing their contact and location details. This information that is all stored at one place is then updated over various channels including mobile pages, website location pages, Facebook pages, local searches on search engines like Google and Bing, etc.
 

A centralized source for all data can help in creating a consistent data source for customers across various digital media. With the appropriate marketing automation, the companies can create models that will help them to quickly test and adopt new marketing channels with ease.

Promoting the Change

While the whole idea of centralizing the data might sound very efficient, you might also think that it is something that you don’t have to really worry about. The job of a search marketer, as we all know, is quite limited. Seldom do these marketers have to think about the use of marketing automation technology or bother about the various data management problems.
 

To begin with, it is important to understand that every effort towards a goal will make a difference. You can start the concept of data centralization right in your silo. Starting to collaborate with SEO is perhaps the first step that you can take if you are someone who works in the paid search domain.

After taking some of those initial first steps, here are some steps you can take to go further

 
• Investing in those technologies and tools that will grow with the customer trends and help in the growth of other technologies and gadgets as well as other such resources.
 
• Moving towards a centralized data source or location.
 
• Creating and adapting content management systems that promote accuracy of data along with increasing its visibility.

Looking Ahead As You Plan For Today

Everyone has a certain goal that they want to accomplish with the present resources. Today’s performance has a great impact on the future success. It is hence important to use the right marketing channels to be effective with customer generation, if that is the goal.