A Quick Look At The Seven Pillars Of Digital Marketing
By John L. Wood
There are many variations on the “Seven Pillars of Marketing” related to traditional and digital marketing. What I am sharing here is an outline that will be expanded on in the next podcast you will be able to listen to via Pinecast. There will also be a direct link to the podcast available on this website.
The core idea of the Seven Pillars of Digital Marketing is that consistent and persistent marketing strategies are like the pillars holding up a building. You need all the pillars to be successful. While you can lose one marketing pillar without the roof falling in, the overall success is unlikely to be as robust. Conversely, skipping or more likely, “skimping” on a pillar, will make it hard to define either success or failure. In today’s business meta, budgets are tighter, but the need for success is not diminished.
The seven pillars of digital marketing outlined offer a quick summary to build solid, sustainable organic digital marketing strategies on. All of these pillars depend on each other to not only achieve success, but to facilitate determining what is working and where fine tuning can accelerate reaching a businesses marketing goals.
As with “goals”, I strongly suggest that the plural of “strategy” is relevant. No one can marketing to a generic caricature of their ideal client. Therefore success generally takes strategies that encompasses a broader target audience. Just because we are filling a funnel, don’t focus on a tunnel!
1. Know Thy Marketing Objectives
Define strategies that are SUSTAINABLE. Using a term that is often applied to search engine marketing, a fundamental strategy objective is that “organic” is sustainable. Create marketing strategies using “in-house” resources, as opposed to paying for outside support, advertising, or marketing expertise. Set a budget and try hard to stick to it. Hiring out your budget will dramatically raise marketing costs.
2. Focus the Strategy on the Brand
It isn’t just about recognizing the brand, but doing so in a manner that reassures potential and existing customers of the Brand’s value. The ultimate measure of “Value” are the BENEFITS that a Brand provides! Know your “FAB” before you create any marketing content!
3. Content is King
Support the strategy by using content where the ideal customer hangs out. This isn’t just about a platform; it is how the customer will best consume the awesome content. Forget SEO fantasies that say, “write this to make a search engine happy”. Create high-quality content that engages today’s consumer who depends on their mobile devices!
4. Distribution of Content
Develop a strategy that gets a customer from any platform that isn’t natively focused on mobile delivery of content, to video. As a former radio DJ, I have a warm spot for terrestrial radio. Both AM and FM radio are essential media for marketing, but most advertisements I hear, do not offer unique website addresses that lead to video content! Have whatever CTA that flies your marketing, but sink the hook with short videos or else!
5. Social Media Strategy
Consistent and persistent social media marketing is like gardening. If you don’t consistently water the garden, it won’t provide the best “harvest”. Your goal is to GROW an audience so you expose your brand’s BENEFITS, to as many eager customers seeking answers to their needs. Stop boring your audience with all the things your brand has accomplished. Tell your audience how those accomplishments have BENEFITED. Even better, let the happy client share their story! Testimonials rock VIDEO!
6. Measure Metrics of Success (or failure)
How well are your strategies working? It is vital to have the ability to measure the return on marketing investment starting at the wide end of the funnel. You also need to understand how that lead was managed after the funnel forwarded it to the critical “call to action” or staff. Did your website negatively impact converting the lead? Was an inbound phone call poorly handled due to lack of a script?
7. Procedures, Structure and Policies
Set a standard that is to be followed until a better way is statistically supported. Do not go about creating new goals, strategies, and procedures without vetting existing ones for success or failure. Without a structure, you will have an incredibly hard time defining success! How can you expect consistent, repeatable success without a structure?
John L. Wood
Digital Marketing Strategies
Sacramento, CA
November 2022