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Is the time for experimenting with digital marketing 'over'?
A recent post from Mark Hughes of C3 Metrics entitled '5 Things Chief Marketing Officers Need To Do To Stay On Top Of Their Game' (which I love) states that
"The time for experimenting with digital marketing is over. The time for acting like a CMO, and demanding the right metrics, is on."
Do we agree? Why or why not?
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2 Answers
As long as new digital marketing options continue to be launched, there will always be a need to learn how to make the best use of those options to achieve marketing objectives.
However, for those companies that have blindly jumped into social media marketing without a plan, YES, the time for haphazard tactical experimentation with social media is LONG GONE. Social media marketing should have a specific plan with a specific set of objectives.
"Digital" marketing encompasses websites, email marketing, social media, SEO, PPC, and mobile marketing. We've long left the experimentation phase with websites, email, SEO, and PPC. 2012 perhaps will be the year we leave the experimentation phase with social media. Mobile may be the area where there are the most questions right now, so perhaps experimentation will focus on mobile in 2012.
If by "experimenting" you mean "dipping a toe in the water without completely understanding what you're doing," then the answer is yes. Digital media have advanced beyond that. They should be a part of every marketing strategy. Every marketing manager should understand what opportunities are presented by each digital strategy and how each is used by the company's target customers.
However, experimentation also means testing, and we should never stop testing the effectiveness of each medium, adding new ones to our marketing strategies as they emerge and dropping the old ones that have ceased to be effective for us. The digital world changes quickly and any company relying on yesterday's information for it is going to be left behind. It's a process of continual growth and change.
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