The Importance Of Clarity In Digital Marketing
Back in the 1960s, Phil Spector developed a recording technique that came to be called the “wall of sound.” While most people think of this as simply a hodge-podge cacophony of music, instruments, and vocals, the process was actually well-organized, orchestrated, and complex – which is why it was groundbreaking during its time.
Those who followed his technique and practiced it effectively created great music – The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Ronettes, and countless others rose to fame by leading the way with Spector’s “wall of sound” technique.
But there were also a lot of musicians who tried to emulate Spector’s process without knowing the underlying philosophy or technique, and who are mostly lost to history.
So what is the difference between those two groups? The successful ones using the “Wall of Sound” had a clear target audience (teenagers), a clear objective (create dense, meaningful music by and for young people), and quality (Spector used some of the most talented musicians of his time to record the layers for his music).
The imitators? They ended up simply creating walls of noise.
The “Wall Of Sound” In Digital Marketing
You might be wondering what music history has to do with digital marketing.
Remember that Wall of Sound? That’s exactly what effective digital marketing strives to achieve. And the “Wall of Noise” created by imitators? That’s what the majority of marketing content is on the Internet today, particularly on Social Media platforms.
The three elements that make up effective marketing are exactly the same as those that made the Wall of Sound so effective. Digital marketing needs to have a clear target audience, a clear objective, and quality content to make an impact.
Let’s dive into those three elements in a little more detail.
Have A Clear Target Audience
Spector’s Wall of Sound was targeted at teenagers and young adults, and was most often performed by that same age group as well. Today’s digital marketing is very similar in that creators of content are often targeting people with whom they share some common ground – whether its age, demographic, region, or any number of other similarities.
What that means for digital marketing is that you need to know your market. Not just who you think will want to use your product or service, but research-based information that informs your actions. If you find out that your product or service is being used most by adults between the ages of 41 and 60, you need to make sure your message isn’t written for teenagers, and vice versa.
This means that you need to do market research, or have it done for you, and be ready to acknowledge that you need to be flexible in thinking about your target market as well as potential uses for your product or service.
By having a clear target audience before you begin digital marketing campaigns, you can make sure you aren’t overwhelming potential customers with what they might find “childish” or “for way later in life,” and working with the data you have at hand.
Have A Clear Objective
The goal of digital marketing is to increase profits and enhance or build your customer base, but you need to be more specific than that when building a campaign.
Users of the Internet and Social Media these days are bombarded by trends, gags, jokes, and more that get almost instantly recycled and reused, which means that after their fifteen seconds of fame, they fall into the background.
That doesn’t mean you can’t use those trends to your advantage, it just means that you can’t simply jump on a trend because it’s there – you need an objective, goal, or purpose for the marketing campaign to make it as effective as possible.
Some clear examples of this include hyping up an upcoming event, emphasizing new and exciting products that just became available, or filling a need that has come up due to world or local events.
For example, if you sell insurance, and the neighboring state just got massive flooding, your objective should be to provide access to coverage to those in your community so they can avoid the problems that come with not being prepared for a disaster like that.
There are a lot of subtle nuances to all of these things, but they provide an idea of what you can keep in mind when building a marketing campaign.
Make Quality Digital Marketing Campaigns
This is the tough one for most companies.
Remember Phil Spector? He didn’t just come up with the technique for the Wall of Sound – he provided the service for other musicians as well.
You might be wondering why these other musicians would come to him to do something that they ought to be able to do themselves. The reality is that he was just really, really good at doing it.
And these musicians recognized that he was the best, so rather than do the job poorly, they knew they would be more successful having the best do the work, and it paid off.
Most of the digital marketing ads and campaigns we see today are amateur and quickly thrown-together. That’s not to say there isn’t a very niche market for that sort of thing. But one video or ad does not make up a marketing campaign.
A quality digital marketing campaign has a beginning, middle, and end; high quality content in a variety of formats (print, video, audio, digital, etc.); and a team of experts analyzing the data through the entire process.
That’s a lot of work, especially if you are running your own business already, but the return on investment of digital marketing is substantial – if done expertly and professionally.
How Can You Make Your Own Digital Marketing “Wall Of Sound”?
If you have a digital marketing team on staff full-time, and they are all quality performers, they should be able to perform this task on a regular basis.
But realistically, your goal here is to create a strong ROI, which means you want to keep investment in digital marketing low in order to maximize potential revenue.
A better option is to hire a team of experts who already work together, have experience creating digital marketing campaigns, and who can do the work of an entire marketing department for a fraction of the cost to you and your business.
This ensures that you have experts at the exact product you want (digital marketing) who can turn your brand into something that resonates with your customer base.
To find out more about how to make your business a hit on the Internet, get started with PixelPop Marketing today.