What is Digital Marketing?
Consider all of the ways you try to get customers, from tv and newspaper ads, sponsorships, press releases, bulletins, posters, telegrams, everything from a-z. What is the best return you could get on any marketing investment?
The obvious answer would be sales! We all want paychecks and to keep making money, maybe even more money than we make now, but what if there was a more valuable return than even a sale?
At the most base level, we have to get people's attention, then make them interested, create a desire, and then call them to action. The most effective way is to build progress through even these steps is to build trust.
Digital marketing is the process of getting people to know, like, and trust you. What we really want is trust, because trust drives revenue.
Think about this from your own experience. There are brands and restaurants that you do trust, and even people that you don't trust, so you warn away from them. But the brands you do trust, those get you excited. Think of how many arguments have been made over Ford and Chevy; Apple and PC; XBOX vs Playstation; Coke vs Pepsi. Even when you're not hungry, you'll jump to recommend your favorite restaurant to someone who is. BTW, if you haven't tried Prime 102's Corner Bar burger, you need to.
Trust drives referrals. Trust drives web traffic. Trust makes people want to watch your videos.
To focus on just sales or your product is short-sighted. It's easy to become an infomercial or worse, a pushy salesman, but when we put the audience's needs before our own, then we can build a genuine relationship that pays exponential dividends over time.
It's the same as dealing with people face-to-face. If you only talk about yourself, no one will be interested to revisit conversation with you, but what if you took an interest in the people you meet? Would they feel valued? Would they be interested in learning more about you? Those same principles apply as we build brands. Always talking about ourselves becomes boring, but talking about the needs of the audience engages them in powerful ways other marketing philosophies can't.
Here's your call-to-action for this video. Sit down and answer these questions: who is your audience, what do they need, and how can you help meet that need to build trust with them?