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By Cheska Chua and Felicia Cruz, Business Development Executives

The internet is filled to the brim with materials that marketers can use to build better brands. An infinite number of sources tell us how to hit the target market, create compelling content, and so much more. All this information can become really overwhelming at times. Thankfully, there are experts who can distill these pieces of advice into key steps that we can easily apply.

Earlier this month, we were fortunate to attend a talk by Mr. Carlo Calimon at the San Lorenzo Business Week 2018. He talked about how marketing has evolved with technology and how we, as marketers, should adapt to the changing landscape.

How can one become a successful Digital Marketer in just 5 steps? Read on to find out.

1. A successful digital marketer must always be on the lookout for the next big thing.

It is important for marketers to quickly spot upcoming trends and marketing opportunities. It is vital that we identify and act on these trends before our competitors leverage on them.

The digital era has brought so many changes that we must adapt to. These include:

An audience that is more impatient, more informed, and more socially-engaged
An audience that demands instant access, and more value
Complicated spending habits and priorities

You have to know how these apply to your target market and you have to identify exactly what makes your target audience tick. For example, the Filipino audience highly values being connected. We can see this through the increasing number of social media users across all ages in the Philippines. Thus, you should know how to capitalize on this and use it to your advantage.

Filipinos also value content that is relatable and engaging. We see friends tagging each other in posts, messaging memes, and even creating parodies of popular content. Thus, we should consider at the kinds of content that our consumers share — and see how we can produce better ones.

We should keep up not just with industry trends, but also social and cultural trends. Always be on the lookout for opportunities that will keep your brand relevant, engaging, and on top of your consumer’s mind.

2. A successful digital marketer provides authentic and engaging content.

According to data from Harvard Business Review:

90% of consumers trust their peers more than their marketers
70% trust brand websites
45% trust TV ads

We see that trust is important to today’s consumers, and this holds true for the brands that they love. One thing that you can do to create the right image for your brand is to create consistent, high-quality content.

But what is high-quality content anyway? It is content that is VALUE-ADDING for your consumers. It should show who your brand is and how it GENUINELY addresses your audience’s pains and needs. In addition to this, your content must be aligned with your marketing strategy and placed in the right platform in order to maximize your results.

This is important because consumers have developed the skill to sniff out — and avoid — marketing strategies that are too “posed” and hard-sell. Your content should be genuinely relatable, sociable, and engaging in order for you to hit the right nerve among your target market.

3. A successful digital marketer knows how to establish the brand’s online presence.

Modern technology requires brands to either PIVOT or PERISH. They have to PIVOT or ‘turn’ with the times and market themselves in the digital age. Otherwise, they will PERISH and remain unnoticed and unmemorable.

Since modern consumers often go online to look for content, products, and services that will fulfill their needs, it’s important for brands to establish their presence in the digital space. As marketers, we should make sure that our brands have at least the digital basics that customers can look for and use when searching for them.

These digital basics are:

1. Your brand’s website

A Website puts you on the map and shows potential customers or partners that you are a legitimate business. It may seem expensive, but there are websites that host for free or for a minimum amount. In the long run, the investment of having your own, fully-customizable space online will be worth it.

2. A Facebook Page

A Facebook Page is one of the easiest and cheapest platforms that you can use, because making a page is FREE. Most businesses start with this, as millions of people use Facebook daily and you are bound to find your market there. If you still aren’t on Facebook, start NOW. Don’t be afraid to use this platform to build your image, engage your fans, and learn more about your market. Eventually, you can look into Facebook’s paid features, such as boosting your page or your post.

Marketers can also utilize platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, and more. Choosing a platform would depend strongly on what your marketing goals are and who your audience is.

Creating content for your brands involves coming up with a cohesive message to be shared across all touchpoints. Partnering with an agency to create a strong social media marketing campaign will make sure that you reach out to your audience in a strategically creative way.

4. A successful digital marketer knows their tools.

Today’s marketers have a vast array of tools to choose from. It is also worthwhile to partner with experts such as advertising agencies, web developers, and SEO experts. Working with these people will help save you a lot of trouble, effort, and time in planning for your campaigns. These experts can also share the best practices that you’ll need in order to achieve the best results in your campaigns.

The internet is also a free and widely available resource that we can effectively leverage on. It provides us with tools that we can use to make detailed and cohesive strategies that will yield the necessary results. These tools can help us understand the customer’s decision-making process, see what the customer base thinks of our brand, and also look at what the competition is doing. Some of these tools may appear too technical at first, but the internet makes it easy to find resources that will help us use these tools.

At the end of the day, what matters are the RESULTS that you want to achieve. All the hard work, time, and money spent will be meaningless without measurable results. There are also a number of online tools that can help you measure the results of your efforts so that you can recalibrate and strategize for the next step in your campaign.

5. A successful marketer is actively learning from other marketers.

A digital marketer has a lot of mentors to learn from, thanks to the Internet. There are so many platforms and tools to use, so many free webinars to watch, and a lot of written resources to learn from.

But what we don’t have a lot of is time. One way to save time is to learn from what other people have done and take calculated risks that we know will yield results. Look for great mentors who will motivate and inspire you as you face your own challenges. Collaborate and share experiences with others so that you can learn from the best in the industry.

At the end of the day, a digital marketer needs to go with the flow of the digital space. At the same time, you need to rise above this flow to make your brand stand out. This means knowing the pulse of trends, opportunities, and your target market. Keep learning from others and see how the best practices in the industry can get you the results you need. Doing this will result in your growth as a marketer, growth for your brand, and growth for the industry.

Do you have any marketing tips to share with us? Let us know in the comments below.

5 WAYS TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL MARKETER