Review: The Digital Marketing Handbook
I have to admit that at the beginning of the book, I was tempted to drop it. Something rings through the first part of the book as having a B2C focus. Perhaps the discussions about online and offline storefronts. Being a B2B marketer, it seemed like the book would be entirely uninformative for my needs. Fortunately, I was wrong.
The Digital Marketing Handbook, by Robert W. Bly balances both B2B and B2C digital marketing. Although I think Bly could have focused on either one or the other, he balances both reasonably well. The second half of the book is largely B2B centric, so it balances out to some effect.
What I specifically liked is that Bly addresses strategic topics, while also delving into tactical tips which he seeds with the reader. Too many marketing books miss the mark on being written to help marketers. Instead, they discuss marketing strategies very generally, or address marketing from a philosophical perspective. These are interesting, but NOT useful. Bly balances the strategic elements of digital marketing, but also dives into tactically useable suggestions. This is a book that you end up highlighting, inserting a post-it note, or dog-earing useful pages.
"Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving." David Ogilvy
While there are 15 chapters, I found the following of particular interest:
- Choosing your business model
- Marketing Funnels for B2B
- Driving Traffic to your Website
- Email Marketing & Opt-in Email Lists
- Landing Pages | Squeeze Pages
- Newsletter
Choosing you Business Model
This section largely discusses business models that resonate with B2C marketers. Bly does bring up the Agora model - which is a multi-faceted (and complicated) e-list generating approach using content marketing. Beyond this chapter the next few are largely B2C centric as he discusses profits (largely a consumer based model), cart abandonment and such. These are excellent discussions in an ecommerce focused publication.
Marketing Funnels for B2B
Bly steps through the basics of B2B marketing. It is all about driving quality leads. More importantly, it is all about driving leads that convert. Although he introduces the traditional B2B funnel, I would argue that his model is detailed... but a bit dated. For novices the detailed view is good. However, the modern standard view of the funnel is a simpler ACD or ACP perspective. ACD being awareness, consideration and decision. ACP being awareness, consideration and purchase.
"In a B2B website for big-ticket products, our funnel's goal is to generate a qualified lead." p49
Bly provides a few real-world case studies from the B2B landscape. He highlights D&B Hoovers, Ferguson, Grainger, and Hubspot. From the Hubspot case, he highlights that "Hubspot generates much or even most of its traffic through social media and SEO." p60. He further discusses the difference between outbound and inbound strategies. Outbound marketing being interruption based methods like direct mail, traditional ads, and cold calling for example. Inbound being are helpful with a prospect's interests. Examples here being SEO, Youtube videos, blog posts, podcasts, white papers, infographics, and social media activities.
Driving Traffic to your Website
The Digital marketing handbook discusses the seven traffic drivers:
- Direct
- Organic
- Referral
- Paid
- Social
- Other
These are all laid out well in Google Analytics. It informs you of the sources of your online traffic. It is important because you will want to learn the different marketing methods that can increase your own traffic. Ultimately, with greater web traffic, you increase the odds that a prospect has come to your site. That increases the chance that they downloads some content, becoming a lead that you later qualify.
"Businesses make an average of $2 in income for every $1 they spend in Adwords." p92 That's a 200 percent back, or a 100 percent return on investment.
Here Bly takes the reader through the merits of content marketing, email, online ads, eNewsletters, and Google/Bing ads. Here he touches on aspects like using influencer marketing campaigns, maximize open rates, click through rates, conversions and sales. The digital marketing handbooks also now starts to offer tactical examples. For lead magnets, Bly suggests a variety of content like cheat sheets, free templates, and tool kits that get leads.
"When social media is part of your buyer's experience, customers tend to convert at a 129% higher rate." p101
Email Marketing & Opt-In Email Lists
Email marketing has been around since the beginning of the internet. And, it is still an impactful marketing tool. It is specifically great when used with your opt-in email lists. Although Bly does not come out as bluntly, marketers need to avoid purchased email lists. They are so tempting, yet never work out. They are ALWAYS a breach of CAN-SPAM, CASL, and GDPR compliances. Opt-ins are a completely different story.
"MarketingSherpa found email marketing databases naturally shrink by about 22.5% every year." p145
Bly provides many ideas on improving your own opt-in lists. There are various means like Direct Mail campaigns, PPC, list swaps, and so on.
"Merkle, a marketing agency, found 74% of adults prefer email for commercial communications." p160
Landing Pages | Squeeze Pages
The Digital Handbook reviews several concepts in landing pages. They should be clean, singular in nature, and not distracting with other ads, references, or links.
Squeeze pages are essentially landing pages (could be an email), that entices the viewer with a free gift in exchange for some of their information. Naturally, the information means that participant becomes an opt-in lead (presuming they checked off the opt-in box). Unlike the traditional landing page that provides some details on the content or subject, the squeeze page is briefer focused on 'opt-in for a free gift'.
Newsletters
Bly is very much in favor of newsletters and e-newsletters as a lead enticing resource. It is a great content marketing asset, and can work for either physical or digital marketing campaigns. In this chapter specifically, Bly offers quite a few tactical suggestions. If you are considering newsletters as an option for staying in contact with your customer base - then you will want to read this section, and take many notes.
Overall
As a marketing expert, Robert W. Bly shares many ideas in The Digital Marketing Handbook. He does a good job of both covering a series of topics, and of also covering them from the strategic and tactical levels. There are plenty of details, and an extensive resource section in the appendices. Bob Bly provides examples, tested direct response methods, and tactical, useable examples throughout. Digital marketing is all about knowing exactly how to do something at a tactical level. In this regard, Bly does an excellent job of providing a handbook that touches B2B as well as B2C, and covers strategy as well as tactics - effectively.
Find it at your bookstore: The Digital Marketing Handbook