Digital Media Marketing seems to be everywhere at the moment. This is understandable, because the internet has changed direction over the last few years to take on a much more social face. We have seen the rise of social websites like Facebook and Twitter, and increasingly the marketing message has to be split between all manner of digital media in order to be most effective.
The answer to whether or not integrated digital media marketing brings success is a mixed one however. On the surface there is the idea that there are now dozens of different marketing channels, and that the only way to have an integrated approach to marketing your business online is to split up your marketing budget between them.
Budgeting for Digital media marketing
This is an attractive option is so far as it is alluring in its simplicity. You find out about a new digital media marketing channel, and then you simply allocate some money to it that would otherwise have been used somewhere else in the marketing mix. For example, you may suddenly think that social media is rising in importance and so you take some money from your PPC budget and instead spend it on building up a social media profile on Facebook.
The problem is that frequently this is exactly the wrong thing to do! Social media can be important, but not always. For some kinds of business social media simply is not a good match. For example, if you are a company trying to sell $10 million dollar yachts, then an integrated approach to your marketing is not going to bring success.
The reason why is simple. Buying a yacht is not something that the average Facebook user is looking for. If someone really wanted to buy a yacht then realistically, would they look on Facebook?
Maybe. But probably not.
They would probably however do a search on Google for more information about specialist yacht builders, and so a Google Adwords Ad could well yield spectacular results.
In this example integrated digital media marketing would be the wrong approach. You would be better of ignoring most of the different channels in favour of advertising on Google, or a website specifically dedicated to yachts. It is possible that you could find a group of yacht enthusiasts on Facebook, and these would be worth marketing too. But in truth that probably shouldn’t be the main focus of your marketing attack.
View your own product
On the flip side however, if you are marketing a face cream or beauty product then an integrated digital media marketing approach is absolutely ideal. For this kind of product Facebook and other social media works fabulously to establish a brand identity, and then you can leave it to your websites, SEO and PPC strategies to close the deal and get women to actually buy the product.
Here it is possible to see the value in an integrated approach, because it is a broad enough market that a wider approach that looks at a various spread of digital media marketing strategies can actually help to build up your online presence at first, and then use other methods to get the sale.
It is certainly worth viewing your own product, website or social media strategies through the lens of an integrated approach, but don’t think doing so will automatically bring success.
