Truly Twisted Marketing

Ever ask a marketing person what the fundamentals of online marketing success are?

I did and was sorely disappointed in what I heard. A lot of mumbo jumbo about brand recognition, joint venture, affiliate marketing…

It didn’t really satisfy my appetite or get to the bottom of my question.

So, I started thinking about the core competencies…what IS it that would be the backbone, the very root, of any marketing endeavor. What does every marketing person need to know in order to set up marketing for their business. I came up with a list of five things.

1. Strategy
2. Insight
3. Creativity
4. Technology
5. Optimization

The strategy is the game plan for what we want to do and how we are going to do it. It requires the knowledge of the relationship between your customer and your brand and the outlets and channels used to reach those customers. It also requires an explicit understanding of the mission of the business and overall goals for success.

Insight is akin to intuition. I particularly like this one because it requires you to think intuitively about what it is you need to know about your customers – you know, get inside their head, walk a mile in their shoes…be familiar enough with them that you can speak to their needs, wants and deep emotional desires.

Creativity is the way you translate your brand into untapped or under used avenues to reach your customers. It requires an intimate understanding of new media, online trends and market conditions and the ability to think outside of what is considered the norm.

Technology is what keeps things running in an online environment. Understanding what technology is being used and how it affects your marketing channels as well as basic business operations is very important. Add to that an awareness of new technology and the best use of new technology for increased exposure and new customer acquisition – also pretty important to know.

Optimization is the pulling it all together for seamless integration. Yeah, sounds easy but in truth it’s not. Seamless integration almost never happens. There’s always something that crops up when dealing with technology. However, running an optimized campaign, measuring return on investment and monitoring your stats is the only way to really know and understand if the marketing endeavor was successful. So a good understanding of how to set up and create an optimized campaign…yep, also pretty important.

Okay, so that’s my simple list of the “Fab Five Marketing Must Haves.” You can call them Sonya’s secret theories or crazy ideas or whatever you feel comfortable with.

The point is these are the basics. I’m sure they can be expounded upon, lengthened and stretched and most likely there’s more to add to the list. Hey,this is a petrie dish, remember? It’s an internet science experiment so go ahead and add on, throw in your own opinions and let’s mix it up a little.

**Photo © UW-Madison University Communications

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