Digital Marketing: Lets go Fishing Together!

Setting the Stage

From a young age, I have always been fascinated with fishing. I love how the water encases a rich ecosystem below it's murky surface, and that humanity really knows very little about the depths and vastness of it. I guess that's why I ended up in eCommerce and Digital Marketing.

Much like our immensely deep and mysterious bodies of water offer diverse pools of life, Digital Marketing offers a similar landscape from which businesses can navigate, explore, and harvest resources that provide the lifeblood for successful strategy. Finding the right spot and knowing when or where to cast, using the right bait, patiently employing an mindset of testing using a build, measure, learn, optimize, lifecycle, and investing in the right gear or technologies, creates the perfect environment for continuous iterative growth.

Finding the Right Spot (Target Audience)

The role of marketing is to move prospects and customers seamlessly and subtly through each stage of the value journey. The idea is to create value and balance the level of pressure put on a customer - neither too much nor too little. But all of that starts by knowing WHO your customer is.

According to Search Engine Journal, "Leveraging business intelligence to understand consumer (target audience) behavior is essential in today’s digital era." Conducting market research and analyzing data-driven insights can help to identify and segment your existing customers or attract new customers who share similar demographics or psychographics.

Using the Right Bait & Technique (Content + Delivery)

Different fish are attracted to different bait, likewise, different customer segments are attracted to different types of content. It is crucial in all scenarios to understand what your target is looking for and how they are trying to find it, in order to provide the best possible chance of capturing and converting the lead.

Content Strategy spans across all channels from email marketing to organic search, to social media marketing, and paid acquisition. According to The Hoth, "Content such as blogs or other landing pages can boost organic traffic from searches, social media platforms, and other sources such as live events. Creating different types of content for different platforms can help to draw in an audience and create more user engagement." So this tells us that there is a depth to content strategy that goes beyond simply writing an article with good keywords. Lets explore a few of the different channels that utilize content, and how to engage them strategically.

Email Marketing is like fly fishing

It allows for precise targeting and controlled delivery to engage specific audiences with tailored messages - like spincasting, you can cast over and over again, trying out different bait, and areas (or segments) until you hit a hotspot.

Organic Search is like Spincasting

You cast your line out, and wait - you can keep trying different bait in different areas, but often you have to wait a long time before the fish notice your rig.

Social Media is like Trolling

Social media is similar to "trolling" in fishing whereas both involve casting a wide net with attention-grabbing lures to capture as much interest as possible. Just as trolling covers vast areas hoping for fish to bite, social media uses enticing content to gain likes, shares, and comments from a broad audience. However, both can also lead to unintended catches or consequences.

Paid Digital Advertising is like Baitcasting

Both require an investment in specialized tools and target specific audiences or fish. Just as baitcasting offers precision in casting to exact locations, digital ads allow precise targeting of demographics or contexts.

Build > Measure > Learn > Optimize

The heart of a successful approach to digital marketing lies this transformational lifecycle of product management which, when adapted to a digital landscape, allows for agility and innovation from an iterative approach. This theology of digital success can apply to the on-site experience, the external acquisition experience, the customer retention strategy, and any aspect of your online store or website that interacts with the customer. Just as fishing requires the testing of different baits, techniques, patience, and adaptive learning methods, digital marketing that utilizes A/B testing and customer-driven decision making allows for greater optimization and impact if you are diligent enough to employ it.

Investing in the Right Gear (Technology)

In fishing, the gear you bring to the table makes an enormous impact on your success. Your fishing rod, reel, line, boat type, and setup are all essential to creating the ultimate fishing experience. And like fishing gear, the technology you choose creates a similar positive or negative effect on your business and your customers. Technology plays a central role in the digital marketing landscape. According to BrainyDx of LinkedIn "As businesses adapt to evolving consumer behaviours and preferences, leveraging technology has become essential to stay competitive and achieve marketing success." There are several key ways that technology interfaces with digital marketing that make an enormous difference in the advancement of data-driven decision making.

Website Platforms

Your website platform creates the foundation for the technological capabilities and growth of your website. Platforms like Wordpress, Squarespace and Shopify are great for businesses that don't have easy access to in-house developers and highly technical personnel. For the more advanced company, platforms like Oracle Netsuite, Magento, Salesforce, BigCommerce, and Drupal provide a more flexible and customizable approach to developing your eCommerce website. Getting connected with the right platform allows you to better meet the needs of the internal business and the customer experience.

Acquisition Channels

Platforms like Facebook (Meta), Google, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest have all contributed to various forms of digital marketing suck as Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Digital or Display Advertising. They offer distinct ways for businesses and brands to connect with their audiences, syndicate content, and achieve marketing goals.

Data Analytics and Insights

Tools like Google Analytics (GA4), Adobe Analytics, Tableau, and other visualization platforms have allowed marketers to track details of consumer behavior, understand the customer journey, and measure the effectiveness of your changes.

Automation

Marketing automation platforms like Marketo, HubSpot, or Pardot create opportunities for businesses to streamline and automate marketing tasks and communications. T

Personalization

The collection and analysis of data on individual user behavior allows businesses to create personalized experiences, content, and advertisements for customers. Additionally, personalization can be used to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and conversion rates.

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

Through machine learning and algorithms businesses can begin to predict consumer behavior, automate tasks and even create content. For example, chatbots reduce the burden on customer service by handling routine inquiries in real time with 24/7 accessibility. While AI can also play a role in collecting and analyzing data, it still benefits from a human interpretation of those results.

On-Site Search

While navigation might still be the most popular way for customers to find what they are looking for, the on-site search should still be a valuable tool for customers to use. When on-site search is done right, conversion rates are much higher. In fact a study by Baymard Institute found that 40% of users who use the search function on an eCommerce website actually make a purchase. Both text based search and voice search are becoming increasingly popular tools that create a better experience for the customer and generate actionable data for the business.

Payment Gateways

Customers want to pay online in a variety of ways, from using an internal merchant processing system, to Google Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and more. Businesses can provide options for the customer to pay for their purchases conveniently and hassle free.

Final Thoughts

Fishing, like Digital Marketing, is as much an art as it is a science, not a one-size-fits-all solution. The human prediction, inspiration, ideation, vision casting, and understanding of consumer behavior can be enhanced by technology, methods, structures, testing, and preparation; however, it cannot be replaced by any of it. Just like fishing, digital marketing is a complex and ever-changing landscape, and takes all of the parts working together as a whole, under the guidance of a patient, experienced, and determined, marketer to navigate the waters and master the catch.