the intersection between information technology, marketing strategy, ideal product

How digital marketers think differently from digital agenices

How Digital Marketers think differently to Advertising Agencies 

Digital Marketing seems similar to advertising agencies in their approach, yet it’s a vastly different landscape. The IT factor is still a thing, but this is a different IT than what you might think. 

What’s IT you ask? Let’s give a bit of context to the idea of IT. An IT Girl is one who has something special.

“An it girl is an attractive young woman, generally a celebrity, who is perceived to have both sex appeal and a personality that is especially engaging.[1] The expression it girl originated in British upper-class society around the turn of the 20th century.[2] It reached global attention in 1927, with the popularity of the Paramount Studios film It, starring Clara Bow. In the earlier usage, a woman was especially perceived as an it girl if she had achieved a high level of popularity without flaunting her sexuality. Today the term is used more to apply simply to fame and beauty.”

Your business as an IT Girl must have a bevy of talents openly on display online. Think of being the IT Girl as an engaging, sexy brand that is like the girl next door just popped by with fresh cookies wearing a stunning swimsuit. A jaw dropping, inspiring, unexpected brand.

Of course that’s what you are going for, and that’s why you’re working hard. And maybe it’s frustrating if it’s not working! If you want to check how you're going, on your website, you can do a quick test in 10 minutes or get an SEO audit done (ours is complimentary and gives recommendations). 

Most businesses are doing SOMETHING online, yet there is a significant gap that means that SME’s are not rockin’ IT just yet. Probably because IT is not clearly understood. IT has far less to do with sex and a lot more in common with relationship building. Here’s our definition of IT … it’s an intersection between three activities.

IT = 

  1. Information technology mastery
  2. Your sweet spot product
  3. Integrated, strategic lead generation
where information technology, marketing strategy and sweet spot product intersect

the intersection of information technology, marketing strategy and set spot product is your IT Girl business secret.

Now let’s break that down.

  1. Information Technology Mastery

    Paying a 25 year old who isn’t a specialist to do your marketing is a common activity. In advertising it might be called ‘brand awareness’, which works if you are on TV and radio and the social media is being backed up by a million dollar advertising budget.

    Most businesses are not doing sufficiently widespread activity . Yet they expect the same results from social media as if ‘being there’ is enough.

    And if you know anything about Facebook, you’ll realise that ‘working your page off’ with less than 1,000 likes is fairly pointless. In fact I’m tempted to say 5,000 minimum, or just forget pages and use groups, the way the algorithm for FB is at this minute.
  2. Your Sweet Spot Product

    This isn’t every product you have. This is a business decision based on profitability. Getting this right is THE key to business success in general, not just online success. One of ours is SEO.

    Take a look below for some of the keys to finding your IT product. And remember the Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule. The product the delivers 80% of your profit for 20% of your effort (including lead generation and complaints) is your sweet spot. If that doesn’t exist, finding out what that is will make your business ROCK.
  3. Integrated, Strategic Lead Generation
    1. Integration

      Any reasonable sized business, and some small ones, will have legacy issues. This is outdated information online that no longer reflects your brand well or kindly. Now that you can be viewed on google, getting this information up to date and reflective of your brand is absolutely key. Integration is also about FUTURE PACING.

      As new platforms come up, you need to own your name on the new platform, own your URL so that you can use the site successfully if it becomes the next big thing. And if it doesn’t, you can have legacy issues when it becomes sad and outdated … clearly a double edged sword.
    2. Strategic

      Planning your brand activities with a digital marketing strategy is THE key to being successful online. That’s because with regular, long term value you will give your clients the trust factor. Without a plan it becomes ad hoc, spammy activity  that isn’t what you intended, but all you had time to come up with We do this for others and the challenge is remembering to lead the way with our own regular, value added content. The great news is that once you have 100 blogs on Google, Google gets to really like your stuff, so keep plugging away at those ideas.
    3. Lead Generation

      Lead generation is now about multiple channels and being consistent on each of them. You will find that the best advertising will follow you about online, with ads that retarget anything you show an interest in. 80% of people buy after they see a product 6 -12 times, known as ‘touchpoints’, so it’s time to get clear that you can 500% your revenue with a comprehensive, integrated lead generation plan. 

How Does the IT Girl relate to a traditional Advertising Agency approach?

As you can see above, the new IT approach is more complicated than you might remember. And so we return to the IT Girl concept.

Marketers tell us sex sells. And back in the day, advertising agencies were the hard and fast, sexy solution to all your marketing woes. If you asked what an advertising agency would cost you, the answer used to be … a lot.

Now … ad agencies have lost their sex appeal, their cash cow status and their mojo.

For advertising agencies, “price (in constant dollars) is now 70% below what it was in 1992.  Since 2004, which was the last year that price and deliverables were in balance, price has fallen by 42% and has been below the level required for appropriate agency staffing.  Falling prices stretch agency resources, reduce quality, create client dissatisfaction and limit holding company growth.” - Darren Woolley 

And here’s an example that shows that sex is no longer the key emotive factor according to headline analyzer where we got better scores without sex in the headline than with, as the word SEX had 0% emotive rating.

Although I’m having a quiet laugh at the score we did get.

headline analyzer, SEO score, ranking factors

Sex no longer holds the 'pull' that it used to ... or does it?

The advertising agency model, of direct sales, blatant headlines and blunt pitches, although still widely embraced, is now a financial black hole for both clients and the agency themselves.

Large advertising agencies are losing business, significant brands are taking their marketing in house.

The great news for many medium enterprises is that you now have a real opportunity to get market share with a great understanding of the new IT triangle and a strategic multi-channel approach.

The new IT girl is high maintenance and needs a lot of love.  

So how do we embrace the new IT Girl and give it lots of love?

Every business faces teething in terms of systems, time and money management, staffing and product development and delivery. Without new clients coming in, preferably effortlessly so that you can focus on the rest of your business, businesses don’t survive.

Traditional advertising might see businesses resorting to discounting, undifferentiated sales collateral or if you’re in marketing, long BORING versions of a common hero journey.

The new IT Girl brand is multifaceted

Understanding yourself is the key to understanding who you serve and how best to serve them. This is a personal journey as a business It’s also the key to profitability. Yet many businesses are not crystal clear on some simple questions like:

  • What IT do you do best?
  • How much you can charge for IT?
  • Do people actually want IT?
  • Who exactly wants IT?
  • How do you let them know you have IT?
  • Being the desirable no brainer solution for IT
  • Making a profit from IT
  • Dishing IT out with dollops of LOVE
  • Caring about how people receive IT
  • Maximising how people refer your IT to others 
  • Ensuring you WOW on your delivery of IT

Understanding your IT from all these angles has opened magical doors for many businesses. Think of it like a Shark Tank approach, where you have a small window to be really clear and beat the 7 second bounce rate. 

All of this knowledge needs to now be placed in the context of a holistic landscape, with a consistent approach. The opportunity to create activity is at an all time high. However, due to marketplace congestion, the results from generalised, uneducated activity are at an all time low. 

So earlier we mentioned advertising agencies … and how their profits have gone from a sexy sky high to a scraping by in the face of the digital tide. 

When you understand the advertising agency model, why it’s dying and what you can do better, there’s an opportunity to rock your marketing digital agency style and become the new IT girl in almost every industry.

In the meantime, you might be wondering ...  

Why does all of this matter, even to big business?

Whereas traditional ad spend was offline, for the first time in 2018, due to internet display advertising, mobile will pass TV as the leading advertising medium in the USA, the world’s largest ad market. Mobile display ads are expected to grow by another 50% in the next 3 years. 

So long traditional ad agencies …. 

This is a critical tipping point. And it’s been coming for a while. 

If you’re interested, we have written some more about the traditional advertising agency model and 5 top tips on rockin’ it digital marketing style from the lessons learned. 

Choosing a Winning Digital Marketing Agency

We’ve spent 3 years and $150,000 on marketing knowledge, to get the people, systems and services in place for our ideal client. We want you to win. 

PLUS we’ve been working with businesses to create their brand and strategy from scratch, through many different industries. We create brands and help with marketing AND we focus on your ideal outcome. 

Your ideal outcome is to get a return on your investment. It’s to be the next IT girl, to be the go to and to effortlessly create a flirt, a sexy and yet relationship building presence online, (this last link is to have a 15 minute relationship building conversation in case you had any questions). 

Here’s what to do next:  

  1. Review your marketing and make sure it aligns with your business 
  2. Make sure your website and socials are the right ones for your profitable client 
  3. Only  focus on ROI activity.

Can you think of anything else that you need to do? Let everyone know in the comments below!

Links

https://www.forbes.com/sites/keenanbeasley/2016/01/31/how-agencies-are-putting-themselves-out-of-business-and-what-we-should-do-about-it/#12ced84749ef - Keenan Beasley

https://www.marketingagencyinsider.com/blog/the-10-most-common-reasons-small-agencies-fail Sheree Tebyanian

http://www.adnews.com.au/opinion/the-ad-agency-model-is-broken-here-s-why#deQ1MzouzZAiF2dR.99 Anne Miles 

https://mumbrella.com.au/strategists-failed-advertising-industry-489904 Henry Innis  

http://www.campaignbrief.com/2017/02/top-5-reasons-agencies-fail-to.html - Ben Fletcher 

https://www.emarketer.com/content/mobile-advertising-is-expected-to-surpass-tv-ad-spending

https://www.trinityp3.com/2017/06/ignorance-of-pricing-is-ruining-ad-agencies/ - Darren Woolley  

About the Author Emma Sidney

Emma Sidney is a copywriter who captures the essence of her clients thoughts and aspirations and translates them into real identifiable results online. As a digital strategist and thought leader Emma takes the content and powerfully adds value through context while explaining the digital space exceptionally well to her clients. Everyone wins when Emma writes.

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