1 thing you need to know about digital marketing Viewpoint careers advice blog

1 thing you need to know about digital marketing Theres no such thing. I know Im not the first to say it and I doubt I will be the last, but unless organisations face up to the fact that to view marketing via digital channels as somehow separate from other channels they will surely get left behind. This means designing for a digital audience first and foremost and even drilling down further to understand context so you can serve up the right content for the right device, at the right time. Look at how your customers engage with you. There are some amazingly accurate and free ways to find out how your customers engage with your organisation and whether they predominantly come via a digital or analogue channel. (What IS an analogue channel these days anyway does anyone really print brochures anymore??) You can always ask them as well, just to make sure you capture those who wont pass through an analytics portal. Either way, most of us have a website, use direct mail, keep stuff on a database and use email to communicate and have had all these for a long time. Err, so mostly digital then? So whats the problem? I think there are two. One is that a large number of marketing teams are formed of design and brand professionals whose skills and capabilities may or may not have evolved in line with the need for digital delivery. Thats often been up to the individual to pursue as opposed to being part of a development plan put in place by the company. Secondly, many IT departments have necessarily acquired some of those skills in an effort to deliver the platforms needed, and so the lines of responsibility between the two have become somewhat blurred. Skills are evolving Of course this is an evolution and there will continue to be new skills required in both IT and marketing. But the most critical skill, in my opinion, is leadership. Recognising the need to upskill and develop employees to enable the transformation of a function to be excellent in new services is a skill that too few leaders possess. In an article we published last year, we talked about a new breed of leader, someone who combined an understanding of the benefits and uses of data alongside the importance of customer experience and brand. These people will be the drivers of change, setting the course for a companys future in an increasingly competitive and fast moving landscape. So if you have great people with these skills, hang onto them! If you enjoyed the above blog  then you might also find some of my other blogs interesting: 2016: The year of the digital diviners Forget B2B or B2C, its actually You2Me 1  thing  you need to know about digital marketing You2Me the sequel Big Data help or hype? 3 things you need to know about careers in 2020 h3strong Share this blog: /strong/h3 //