Introducing our Industry Experts!
This week at The Digital Scoop, we reached out to some industry professionals to gain an insight into some of the most commonly discussed areas of digital marketing today, as part of our on-going industry insights campaign.
We chatted to three marketing experts working in different fields to find out their thoughts on the most commonly discussed areas of digital marketing today.
Our first professional is Karan Gupta, a previous student on the MSc Digital Marketing course. Karan is currently a Director at Accelerate – an early stage tech start-up based in Hong Kong.
Ysabelle Graham-Smith is our second expert on the blog this week, she gives us a taste of her role as UK & EU Student Recruitment Officer at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
And the cherry on the top is Ross Byrne, the Digital Marketing Executive at Mackie’s of Scotland!
Find out what they had to say below…
What do you think is the future of digital marketing?
– Karan Gupta
“With the fast pace of change, tight marketing spends, and focus on tangible results, future of digital marketing is definitely switching from traditional marketing metrics such as awareness, and increase in website traffic to metrics such as user acquisition and revenue. Hence, digital marketers need to constantly keep assessing the right tools, get more product focused and start using the power of analytics for decision making”
– Ysabelle Graham-Smith
“I think the future of marketing in general is digital marketing. We interact with customers/consumers in a completely different way than we used to only 10 years ago. From orders to complaints, nearly everything is done online now. Digital marketing has a huge influence on relationship marketing, and how we build connections with consumers. One minor slip up online can destroy an entire lifetime of work. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a marketing campaign going awry like the recent BrewDog ‘Pink IPA’, it could be a member of staff offending a group of customers on a company social media network, without even realising like the Rude Health blog post incident. As more and more people opt to shop online (for everything), digital marketing with continue to grow and develop”
– Ross Byrne
“I believe that both further advancements in digital marketing personalization, and the use of Block Chains to securely build, store, and manage customer data represent the future. Personalization has been around in digital marketing for some time, just look at Geo-Targeting. However personalization in the future will include a deeper understanding of customers signals or behaviours which indicate their interest in certain products, and how we can accurately predict, and market the right products or services to them. Additionally I do believe, regardless of all the hype, that Block Chains shall live up to their potential and be of great of use to digital marketers all around the world by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of CRM models and changing models and processes for online transactions”
What is the importance of an SEO strategy?
– Karan Gupta:
“This ties in with having a consistent and relevant user growth without burning a lot of marketing dollars. Having a strong off-page and on-page SEO ensures a higher goal conversion on the website as well as attracting the right audiences. Classic example is Slack, which had an incredible growth trajectory by focusing mainly on having a very strong and focused SEO strategy”
– Ysabelle Graham-Smith:
“Fundamentally, you want people to be able to find you. No matter what your company is, and no matter what sector you fall into, you want to be seen. SEO strategy is essential to that. One of the key parts of your SEO strategy is content. Good, original and engaging content is essential to raising a good SEO. If your content lacks creativity, your website will rank low and it won’t be seen”
– Ross Byrne:
“We live in a ‘Search Engine Optimization’ world every single day; we’re all constantly trying to jump to the top of our friends ‘feeds’ and be the one everybody is talking about. Every Digital Marketer should have a good working knowledge of how a good SEO strategy can help their company increase their credibility and awareness, while also providing a lower cost way to market their products and services to consumers over say a price per click strategy. If you don’t have a good understanding of this, don’t worry … you can always search for it …”
Why is digital marketing a smart career direction?
– Karan Gupta:
“Two reasons: ever growing demand around the world with start-ups and even large corporates which are undergoing digital transformation. Secondly, digital entails a wide range of skills, broadly leveraging creativity, data-driven thinking, growth hacking mind-set and design thinking. Given the wide range of skills, talented digital marketers can grow both vertically and horizontally”
-Ysabelle Graham-Smith:
“Digital marketing is a smart career direction for a number of reasons, not only do most digital marketers have experience in traditional marketing to apply to their job, but they also are steps ahead of traditional marketers. It’s a smart move as more and more companies (which you wouldn’t usually expect) are moving towards a focus on digital marketing, things like traditional security companies, schools, tourism companies and so on. Digital marketing can apply to all roles. We are beginning to see a move from writing/journalism over to ‘content creation’ roles which carry all the desirable skills that you learn through digital marketing (social media management, advertising, and SEO to name a few) these kind of roles did not require this additional knowledge only a few years ago. Digital marketing is a good and smart career direction because it is necessary in all spheres, private public sector. In the education sector, we are constantly trying to keep up to date with the latest digital trends, ensuring that our prospective students are being fed information, and can find information in the most user friendly way possible. We are no longer relying on students to pick up a copy of our prospectus and read it there. They want to see videos, blog posts, photos on our social media channels and virtual tours before they even decide to visit us on campus”
– Ross Byrne:
“Digital communications are now the norm, it’s not the 1960’s anymore and the business of marketing and advertising no longer looks like an episode of Mad Men. In fact the real Mad Men are marketers that choose not to embrace digital marketing as an integral part of their company’s direction. The way that people consume information has changed over the years and digital platforms reach continues to grow. Digital marketing is a fun, exciting place to work, and the industry shall continue to grow for years to come”
So there you have it. We hope you found these insights into the digital marketing industry as interesting and helpful as we did. If you have your own thoughts on these matters why not leave a comment below and let us know what you think or if you’re looking for even more insight check out our recent podcast series over on The Digital Scoop.