Are You In A Codependent Relationship? Your Digital Marketing Strategy Needs To Be Codependent.
Typically when we think about codependent relationships we don’t think of them in a overly positive light. The extreme examples of friendships lost from codependent dating situations come to mind. While codependent relationships are not always a bad thing, sometimes they can get TOO dependent. Codependency may not always be a fabulous thing in relationships, but it is when you look at your brand’s digital footprint.
Digital is codependent; it just is. If brands are going to succeed with their digital marketing, they need to adopt a codependent digital strategy. Social media marketing alone won’t save your brand. SEO alone won’t save your brand. Good website design won’t save your brand alone. Fill in these statements again and again with different forms of digital platforms. ALONE, they can’t do it – not in today’s digital world.
Now, I’m not saying that these digital platforms won’t do anything. Believe me. They are all important and have their place. What I am saying is that they need to work together; they need to be in a codependent relationship to make a dent for your brand.
Let’s say you have an amazing social media presence. You’re tweeting. You’re posting. You’re rockin’ it! However, your website struggles and hasn’t been updated in about five years. It’s not mobile friendly, and it looks like was made during the days of dial up. You can send people to your website all day long from social media, but if your website is horrible and you have no call-to-action, you’ll turn them away.
On the other hand, let’s say you have a gorgeous website. It’s clean, fresh, and doing great. However, you haven’t optimized the website and you aren’t promoting it on social media. Then, you wonder why you have no traffic on your website! You’ve got to use other digital platforms to funnel your audience to your landing page or website.
- All of your digital channels need to work together.
- The website needs to point to your social media.
- Your social media needs to point to your website.
- Your social media needs to be focused on SEO and your SEO needs to be promoting your website.
- Your website, social media, and ads need to be promoting your products or email list.
- Your email lists and products need to be promoting the branding on your social media and your website.
You can’t just pick one thing online to focus on. You need to have multiple angles all pointing to each other and promoting each other. This will drive traffic, sales, and impressions online. This approach also gives some focus to the types of content you write on your website, the topics your audience are interested in, the posts you post on social media, and the ads/promotions you run to your audience.
I see a lot of agencies and digital companies who do ONE thing. That’s great. You need experts who specialize. However, those specialists need to understand the importance of the other digital marketing platforms out there. When you have a specialist who sees the big picture, you can get a more comprehensive approach to your digital marketing plan. Your social media managers can work side-by-side with your SEO guru and your email marketing experts. Your SEO folks can work with your copywriters, graphic designers, and your social media managers to make sure that the keyword focus and SEO goals are all lining up.
So, do we have to do EVERYTHING?
I get this question a lot. To be honest, no, you can’t do it all. Our digital landscape is transforming constantly and there is no way to keep up with it all and to do it all well! However, you can strategically find the digital marketing platforms that you can and should be on for your business and your industry. Then, you can make a plan to have all of those platforms work TOGETHER in a codependent relationship.
Questions To Ask Yourself:
- What is our digital marketing strategy?
- What digital platforms are we brand focusing on already?
- What digital platforms do we want to add to the mix?
- Do our SEO experts, Social Media Experts, Webmasters, Copywriters, Ad Creators, and Designers have the ability to talk to each other freely about goals and strategies?
- What opportunities do we have THIS WEEK to start working together with the other digital marketing platforms we are on?