The Ten Commandments of Digital Marketing

There are many people who come to me and complain that digital marketing is just a fad. Digital Marketing does not really work effectively or is unable to give the desired outcomes. Having trained more than 5,000 professionals in Asia and Europe in Digital Marketing and having done consulting projects for big multinationals like Coca Cola, Colgate Palmolive and Henkel, I would like to enlist a few pitfalls and how to avoid them. I call them the ten commandments of Digital Marketing:

1.     Thou shall not bombard the social media with content

It is a very common proclivity of first-time digital marketers to get super excited and start bombarding the social media with banners, videos, marketing campaigns and bragging about their achievements. We need to understand the law of diminishing marginal utility. The more you post, the less your target viewers will be interested in your posts. It is always better to make a few high-quality posts, spaced at regular time intervals, rather than bombard the social media with content and posts and then get depressed because nobody really is appreciating those posts.

2.     Thou shall understand that quality is more important than quantity

Quality plays a big role in ensuring the reach, penetration and conversion. A picture taken with a HD Camera, a video made with VFX technology, a banner designed with Adobe Photoshop or CorelDraw or an article written by an expert blogger can really do wonders. Proper time has to devoted to composing, designing and editing the content. A trash work will always get very low eyeballs in Social Media 

3.     Thou shall do proper research before posting the content

A proper research will help us to understand the tastes, likes and preference of our viewers and customise the content accordingly. There are several tools like Google Analytics, Web Analyzers and Keyword Research Tools that help us to analyse and understand our viewers in a better manner. A social media campaign run with proper research is always a winner.

4.     Thou shall include CTA in every digital marketing campaign

The biggest mistake digital marketers do is not including a CTA(Call-To-Action) button in their campaigns. Every digital marketing campaign should be accompanied by a CTA button in the form of “Buy Now”, “Register” or “Download”. Otherwise, the viewer will be completely bewildered about what to do after seeing or reading the campaign.

5.     Thou shall not lust for freebies

People think everything in social media can be got for free. This is a complete myth and misconception. Free tools like SEO can give a certain amount of reach, but will take a lot of time and might not be able to reach out to the exact target group. It always makes sense to invest in paid campaigns and do boosting to reach out to target customers effectively and get conversions within a short span of time.

6.     Thou shall be ethical in your approach

The best policy in social media marketing is to be honest, under-promise and over-deliver. Companies should not make false promises in social media. They should not plagiarize or steal other people’s content. The repercussions of immoral practices are very high with a heavy price to be paid for violations.

7.     Thou shall appreciate thy neighbour in Social Media

There is a give-and-take policy in Social Media. If you want more likes, comments and shares, you should also give likes, comments, shares and appreciation to others. A nice word and a kind gesture always create magic in Social Media.

8.     Thou shall practice social listening in Social Media

Many companies try to stifle the voice of dissenters in social media and ultimately end up with a black eye. Many companies try to use defamation suits to discourage social media users from posting any adverse content that harms the company’s image. But it is always better to use social listening tools and address the concerns of the aggrieved people before the issue snowballs into an uncontrollable crisis.

9.     Thou shall keep an eye on Analytics Dashboard

Google has Google Analytics, Facebook has Facebook Insights, YouTube has YouTube Analytics. Besides, there are many Web Analytics tool like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, SEMrush and Alexa, who provide dashboards to monitor social media traffic. Running social media campaigns with an eye on Webanalyzer Dashboard is like driving a car with eyes on the dashboard. If you take your eyes off the dashboard, you will never understand whether the campaign is giving desired outcome or if you need to do any course correction.

10. Thou shall follow a systematic and structured approach to Digital Marketing

Finally, I would like to emphasize that a random approach to digital marketing is not likely to give the desired outcomes. One needs to sit with pen and paper, make the flowchart of activities, list down the resources required and identify the timelines before starting the campaign. A structured and systematic approach is bound to give the desired results.