After a few months i met again digital Holmes in his Home cum office to pick his brain about digital marketing. It is a fascinating subject i am interested in and who is better than digital Holmes to explain it to me.
Hello! my dear Watson! long time no see! You look swell and some what gained a little weight i see! he welcomed me with his usual enthusiastic self. Still are you interested in digital marketing and want to know how it works? You do! I see! You are not alone. I have been meeting a lot of business persons who contacted me after your last article about
They are also have no idea about digital marketing and how it works.
Watson! do you know what goes in to a film production. How a movie finally released in theatres? he asked me.
My dear Holmes! why this sudden interest in movies? I asked him somewhat confused. To my knowledge he is the last person who shown interest in movies.
My dear Watson! movies are always one of my most fascinating subject. Movies, Music and Sports are intertwined with people’s interest and mingled in our culture. Human beings are always interested in stories. Movies are the visual content people love to watch and discuss. That is why content marketing is the king in digital marketing process.
Why bring it now you ask me Watson! i shall come to the point in few minutes.
People watch movies and discuss about the screenplay, actors and other things emotionally moved them.
A movie development starts with an idea, a theme or a story with an assumption that people will be interested in that film and pay to watch it.
A film production is not a small feat. It involves lots of people, clear planning,a budget in millions, screen writing, shooting, casting, sound recording, locations, choreography, editing and thousands of processes. Creation of a movie starts with an idea and moves and grows in a lots of stages, from development, pre-production, production and distribution.
Typically, it involves many people, and can take from a few months to several years to complete a movie.
A movie is a bit like Sprint, digital marketing is a bit like marathon. Like sprinters a movie needs every scene to be the best to succeed.
Even after a budget in millions, carefully created content (Screenplay), Superior direction, Super actors, well selected cast, fantastic choreography, smash hit sound recording and perfect editing, the outcome is not guaranteed and unable to achieve the result. It may or may not not resonate with the targeted audience and hit or flop in the box office.
There is no chance for trial,testing or experiment for a movie. One shot is all it will get.
When you plan a digital marketing strategy, there is ample opportunity to post your content in multiple channels, avenues and mediums to try, test and experiment in different ways. An opportunity to start small to grow big with agile marketing methods.
Like making a movie, Watson here is a small list of digital marketing processes and actions to reach a large audience in order to convert them to buying customers.
⦁ Content optimized website
⦁ Cloud hosting
⦁ Brand building
⦁ Marketing strategy
⦁ E commerce
⦁ Search engine optimization
⦁ Key word optimization
⦁ Organic growth
⦁ Sms marketing
⦁ Whatsapp marketing
⦁ Search engine marketing
⦁ Inbound marketing
⦁ Outbound marketing
⦁ Social media marketing
⦁ Display advertising
⦁ Video marketing
⦁ Conversion optimization
⦁ Cost per click advertising (CPC)
⦁ Pay per click advertising (PPC)
⦁ Email marketing
⦁ Content marketing
⦁ Conversion optimization
⦁ Facebook ads
⦁ Google ads
⦁ Linkedin ads
⦁ Influencer marketing
⦁ Advertisement campaigns
⦁ Re marketing
⦁ Affiliate marketing
⦁ Viral marketing
⦁ Analytics
⦁ Big data
⦁ Machine learning
⦁ Artificial intelligence(Ai)
⦁ Data science
⦁ Programmatic advertising
⦁ Chat bots
⦁ Customer resource management (CRM)
⦁ Marketing automation
A movie is targeting general or a particular audience’s taste. Film genre, such as comedy, horror, action, romance, science fiction, adventure, animation, children’s.
Digital marketing is also targeting general consumers or targeting particular audience’s interest to connect and engage with them to sell products or services.
It depends upon the budget, target audience, goals, objectives the above said elements will be used to achieve the intended outcome.
Like movie making, the director visualizes and see the big picture. Organizes all resources to finish the film to release for viewing.
Similar to the director a person or a team of people comes under an umbrella like an internet marketing agency need to mix and match all the above said elements in different stages to help a business generate profitable growth and double down the revenue continuously.
Unlike a movie, digital marketing process is a never ending marathon requires a commitment to connect with new and existing customers, engage with them continuously and convert them to paying customers and retain them for their life.
Pray! tell me Holmes! why this analogy?
By our long time acquaintance you know me very well as an ordinary person with normal IQ and my interest in helping small businesses to succeed online in this internet economy.
I interrupted him exclaiming ” Oh! Holmes! i know you are an authority on online marketing.you are so modest”.
He laughed loudly and said ‘ No! no Watson, you are making a big mistake! my dear Watson big mistake. You know my IQ is lower than yours. My only strength is i am always work toward improving my digital marketing skills and try it and test it regularly to improve at what i do.
I know a boy from his age 19, who attended school only four years. he joined a two wheeler mechanic workshop at the age. His IQ is lower than normal boys. When a scooter or motor cycle comes to the workshop where he works, he will ask a few questions, kick start the vehicle or dismantle the particular parts of the vehicle and diagnose and tell the customer what is the problem with the vehicle and what parts needed replacement within few minutes to the customer’s astonishment. I knew it for a fact, he is very good at what he does and better than any motor mechanical engineer.
By applying regularly the same set of actions and repetition of the work, he become an expert in his field. That is the power of repetition. That is how i become an expert and good at what i do and i provide the best service.
I spend more time online gathering the required knowledge to improve my strength in digital marketing skills. As I have been saying all the time an astronomical ocean of information spread all over the internet to improve one’s self in any subject and field.
Actually hundreds and thousands of subject matter experts, thinkers and expert consultants already created and written thousands of how to articles, info graphics, webinars, podcasts and created ( still consistently creating) videos for public consumption. Unlike other digital marketing experts, i spend more than my half of my working hours soaking up knowledge like a sponge from their content. By trying and testing what works and apply it in my marketing.
I do subscribe to these quotes whole heartedly.
“We are what we repeatedly do, excellence, then is not an act, but a habit”. ARISTOTLE
“Repetition is the mother of learning, father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment” . says -Zig Ziglar.
Most of the knowledge and insights in digital marketing is derived from continuously reading, listening, watching and following the subject matter experts.
I follow and subscribe to expert blogs, read articles like Accenture blogs, KPMG blogs, E&Y blogs , Thinkwith google blogs , Linkedin sales and marketing blogs, Facebook case studies, You tube video marketing case studies, research, Moz blog, Search Engine Journal blogs, Marketo blogs, Content marketing institute, Social media examiner, copy blogger, Harvard business review, Forbes business council experts blogs, Oracle, Salesforce and more than 1000’s of best professional and experts who share their knowledge and insights regularly in different and variety of channels and medias. Experts and authorities are allowed to write these articles.
Anyone and every one can become experts and authority on digital marketing and apply the knowledge in their marketing to grow their business multiple times.
In running world sprint focuses on short term, marathon focuses on long term. In this internet economy fierce competition and challenging marketing landscape, every business need to combine and plan a strategy and focus on growing their business like sprint and double down sprint like focus to marathon like race.
A painfully and perfectly created movie may fail to bring desired financial result.
But a well thought out digital marketing strategy and execution will result in positive outcome and growth is guaranteed in the short term and long term. Artifical Inteligence(Ai) and marketing technology are like steroids that will help your business grow swiftly and surely.
My dear Watson you asked me why this analogy?
Hollywood. Bollywood, Kollywood or Tollywood, Producing a movie is not guaranteed for success.
This analogy suits or not, that doesn’t matter. Just to emphasise why digital marketing matters to reach the smart phone toting customers will help a business grow. It will bring positive results only.