As a favour to a friend and business colleague, I recently presented at a series of seminars to get the people of my local area thinking more about how they can market themselves. The three things that most blew me away were; the turn-out; the enthusiasm and; the overwhelming feedback.

I was thrilled that so many success-hungry small business owners were prepared to show up on a wet, windy autumn evening to learn, share ideas and meet like minded people. I found that inspiring in itself!

The subject of the evening was digital marketing and the seminar was aimed at those who didn’t really know what it was or how it could benefit their business.

I was so impressed by their keenness to learn that I thought it worth sharing with you too.

So here’s the highlights…

What is digital marketing? The promoting of brands using all forms of digital advertising channels to reach customers. Today, it includes; television, radio, internet & mobile

Is it just a phase? 1,966,514,816 internet users worldwide (28.7%), 475,069,448 internet users in Europe (58.4 %), 51,450,000 internet users in the UK (82.5%). The UK is 8^th in the world league table (in terms of number of internet users). So in short, no. It’s most definitely not a phase.

Digital marketing on the internet includes;

Email - plain text or HyperText Markup Language (this is the use of bold, coloured text and perhaps the odd picture or graphic)
Video - i.e. youtube channel
Webinar – short on line tutorial or sales demo (could be created using video with powerpoint, perhaps)
Podcast - series of audio or video messages released in episodes (great for breaking up larger pieces of information into bite size chunks)
Webcast - live or on-demand streamed media file (usually video)
Social media - facilitates information sharing through social interaction (great for building relationships and combining business information with personal thoughts and opinions)
Website – brochure/transactional/blog

Digital marketing on a mobile phone includes;
SMS – txt msg
MMS – multimedia message service (picture, audio or video)
Email – plain text or HyperText Markup Language
Video – ie youtube channel
Webinar – short on line tutorial or sales demo (could be created using video with powerpoint, perhaps)
Podcast - series of audio or video messages released in episodes (great for breaking up larger pieces of information into bite size chunks)
Webcast - live or on-demand streamed media file (usually video)
Social media - facilitates information sharing through social interaction (great for building relationships and combining business information with personal thoughts and opinions)
Website – brochure/transactional/blog

Yep. Everything on the internet is now available on the mobile phone (iphone, Blackberry, smart phone or android phone)

Social Media – Is it just a bandwagon? No, but the media will probably change. 5 years ago it was all about MySpace. Now it’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & LinkedIn.

Key advantages of using social media to generate awareness
It’s fluid. It happens in real time and you are the publisher = low cost. Short deadline = no problem. It’s highly measurable and great for building relationships

Key disadvantages of using social media to generate awareness
Reputation management. Remember, it’s a 2 way process and it’s nigh on impossible to control what others say. Think about the words and choose them carefully. Remember your brand image and write stuff with that in mind. It can take up quite a bit of time and as a business owner you should value your time. Enormously! If you don’t have the time you should bring in an expert, but remember you have to invest time with your expert so that they understand your business inside out. After all, it’s your reputation at stake.

Have an integrated plan. There’s no point in doing any of it in isolation, but that goes for any marketing activity.

What is remarkable about you or what you’re saying? If there’s nothing remarkable, no one will REMARK!

Your brand can be experienced using all 5 senses, if you want it to be. Digital media is great for utilising images (still or moving). You can create podcasts or audio files to accompany actions. Sounds can be very emotive if they’re relevant to the visitor.

Be different

It’s an incredibly noisy world out there and you have to do something creative, noteworthy and memorable if you’re to stand out.

Don’t be nervous. Have a go, or you’ll never know.

If you need some help figuring out how to started with digital media, let me know.