Now What?
After an event such as the Digital Marketing Conference, some attendees are left with a poignant question. Now what?
You've left the conference all jazzed up but once you get back to the ranch, all of the ludidites prevent you from moving forward. You feel like you are going in circles.
"There is only tacit agreement in my company now to invest in marketing tools such as search engine marketing, email, affiliate marketing and banner ads. And you expect me to get into blogging, RSS feeds, podcasting and Second Life? Right." So now what?
I posed this this question to a couple of people such as Joseph Jaffe, Jordan Banks, Mitch Joel, David U.K. and other pretty sharp people. Here are the salient points:
(1) Establish credibility. Don't ask for $100k budget for new digital marketing. Start small and grow from there once you demonstrate ROI. Call it an investment budget so you can manage expectations accordingly.
(2) Educate them. Show the naysayers case studies and other examples of what other companies are doing out there. Business cases are not that difficult to find on Google.
(3) Enlighten them. Tell the skeptics that many successful firms have blogs. Names such as Dell, Nike, eBay and Southwest Airlines might ring some bells. Both Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal now have podcasts. If an F1 bank is willing to do it...
(4) Encourage them. Get colleagues to attend the DMC. If you have no budget check out CaseCamp because it's free. At the DMC, you received a free copy of Life after the 30 Second Spot. Once you finish it, lend it out to anyone in a BPU (Business Prevention Unit). Give it to your SVP, IT, Finance and Marketing folks to read. If you don't have a copy - buy it. (No, I didn't get any kickback for this product placement.)
(5) Expectations. Rome was not built in a day. New technology scares the bejezzus out of some people. "We've done catalogues/newspaper ads for 50 years. Why would we invest in search engines and blogs?" (Yes, bang head against concrete wall here.) Anything worth doing well is going to be hard work if you want the payoff.
And if there isn't a payoff, you are no worse off than when you started. Why? You miss a 100% of the shots you don't take.
And remember, there are a lot of firms on the client side and agency side that do get it with not nearly enough talent to go around. At that point ask yourself, now what?
