The Fine Art of the Digital Marketing Campaign

In the age of social media everyone is, in a sense, a digital marketer. We “market” ourselves to friends and family with shared selfies, statuses, and videos.  But how does digital marketing work for a business? How do you build an audience and make people care about your message?

The phrase “Digital Marketing” is loosely defined. Ultimately, “digital marketing” efforts consist of a series of marketing campaigns that live on the web, one way or another. These “campaigns” take on many different forms:

• Email Marketing
• Social Media Outreach
• Website & Landing Page Design
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising (ads you see while browsing the web)
• Search Engine Optimization (getting to the top of Google)
• Reputation Management (pushing bad reviews down in Google)

Whichever tools are right for the job are determined by a number of things, such as the goals of your business, the target audience, and the industry you’re a part of.

We’d love to talk to you about bringing your business to the web, or you can read on and learn a little more about how it all works.

Let’s start by taking a look at the types of campaigns that are in use out in the world wide web, and the tools that digital marketers use to make these campaigns a reality.

Visibility Campaigns

The goal of an acquisition campaign is to make consumers aware of your message, engage them with interesting content, and often times get “permission” to continue engaging them in the future (think email lists).

This is where our digital journey beings, and generally includes

• Blog Posts
• Social Media Posts
• Podcasts
• Infographics
• Newsletters

This “sweet spot” of excellent content can be difficult to pinpoint – it’s often somewhere near where your passion & knowledge meets the problems of your audience. This campaign should educate, inspire, or entertain – but more important than anything, it needs to be authentic and truly valuable. 

The visibility campaign we initiated for Scotch N’ Sirloin comes to mind – take a look at how we approached it.

Interaction Campaigns

Interaction Campaigns aim to cultivate communities, generate buzz, and begin turning prospects into leads & advocates for your business’s brand.

This is where successful marketers typically “give something away,” through a few digital channels that could include:

• Educational Resources
• Free Software or Plugins
• Trial Periods
• Discount Codes / Coupons
• Helpful Quizzes
• Data & Industry Information (White Papers)

Ultimately, the interaction campaign should be geared towards turning prospects into actual leads. This is also the stage where you’ll begin to engage in “permission marketing,” where a person gives some of their personal information (email address, usually) to permit you to continue engaging them with your message. This is a privilege – don’t abuse it!

The digital outreach performed on behalf of Pyramid Management Group is a good example of a sustained engagement campaign that addressed the challenge of promoting multiple brands under the umbrella of each shopping center.

Monetization Campaigns

Monetization campaigns are meant to turn leads into customers and continue building the brands reputation through advocacy and providing value. 

There are many means of “closing the sale” in the digital realm:

• Creating urgency with limited time offers
• Providing a deep discount or trial period
• Paid Subscription to a Service over time
• Upselling & Cross-Selling different offers
• Leveraging exclusivity to certain audience members
• Splintering your services, or offering pieces of it “a la carte”

It’s vitally important at this stage to remain genuine. At this stage, you’ve done a lot of work to cultivate a following of trusted brand advocates and leads, the last thing you want to do is alienate your audience with some sort of bait ‘n switch tactics.

Our Los Angeles Client, the Wine House, strikes this delicate balance through providing valuable email campaigns which both educate their audience while also providing exclusive wine offerings and deals.

The Internet has connected society in ways that seemed impossible years ago. Millions of eyes stare at their computers and phones for hours a day. Eyes that crave a break from the barrage of crappy content, scams, and nonsense that has proliferated over the years. If your message can be that break from the fray, and create that genuine moment of connection that is all too human, you’re wielding enormous power.

At Kishmish, we empower you to spread your message online. We live and breath this stuff, and we’ll talk about it for hours if you let us. We won’t though. We know you’re busy.

Get in touch with us. Now that you’ve had a crash course in digital marketing, we’d love to know what you’re thinking of doing next.