‘T-Shaped Marketer’ is a buzzword cropping up on LinkedIn profiles and job descriptions and is used to describe marketing professionals with a broad set of skills (the horizontal line represents skills across traditional and digital channels); and a depth of experience (the vertical line represents experience in managing resources, projects and cross-functional relationships).
One of the challenges organisations face when recruiting digital marketers is that skills tend to be polarised. We have a whole generation of digital natives who live and breathe social media, are connected 24/7 to their peers, are media-savvy, but have no experience developing integrated, strategic marketing plans. At the other end of the spectrum, we have experienced marketers who are excited by digital channels but struggle to integrate them into broader marketing plans – or simply outsource SEO, PPC and social media to third parties.
Pigeon-holing digital marketers
Consequently, the danger is that we end up with tactical digital activity that seems like an afterthought to the traditional mix and/or poorly constructed campaigns that rarely deliver return on investment. We also end up pigeon-holing digital marketers as single skilled PPC experts, social media experts, email marketers and support the notion that disciplines such as SEO are dark arts.
My problem with this approach to digital marketing roles is that we wouldn’t do it for the traditional communications mix. I can’t recall seeing recruitment ads for a ‘Print Marketer’ or ‘Radio Advertising Manager’. Historically, marketers have had to plan for the communications mix - this means defining objectives, understanding target markets, defining messaging, finding the right channels from the myriad of options and of course, measuring performance.
We are starting to see organisations bring digital skills in-house, and whilst there are new rules, netiquette and new tools to manage digital campaigns, all activity should support the strategic marketing and communications plans.
Does ‘digital’ need its own plan?
Do I believe that ‘digital’ should have its own plan? To be honest, I don’t think it matters, as long as we are actually planning. That being said, as we move through this series, it should become clear that there is a lot to think about when developing a strategy for online channels.
So where do we start? Well, a good start is defining what we actually mean by ‘digital marketing’. What is your digital universe?
A useful way to frame your digital universe is around the concept of owned, earned and paid for digital footprint.
Owned, earned & paid-for digital footprint
Your ‘Owned’ digital footprint includes core digital assets such as your website(s), blog(s) and email campaigns. Most organisations these days are undertaking these core digital marketing activities. It can also include ‘managed’ elements of your digital footprint such as your Facebook page(s), LinkedIn presence Twitter account(s) etc. although we are all just guests in the social layer!
‘Earned’ includes your rankings in search engines (SEO), guest blog posts, digital PR and articles.
‘Paid for’ includes all forms of PPC, including remarketing, social PPC, SEM (search and display ads), banner advertising, online sponsorship, affiliate marketing etc.
Understanding your digital universe is important for two reasons; firstly, we need to be able to define what we do now and subsequently, what is and isn’t working for us. Secondly, it allows us to spot opportunities in terms of channels we are not currently utilising.
Now define your key competitors’ digital universe. What channels are they using? What are they good at, what are they bad at, where are they focusing budget?
This first step is a good way of populating your digital SWOT analysis – I know it’s old school, but I’m a digital immigrant who believes there’s still value in using tools that work!
In the next part of the series, I’ll look at structuring a digital marketing plan and some of the other tools we can use to build our strategy.