10 Lessons Learned from a Decade in Digital Marketing
After more than a decade in the marketing field, I’ve definitely had moments where I worked harder, not smarter.
I’ve also doubted myself when I should have trusted my gut, and had days when I struggled to innovate, even though inspiration was all around me.
A creative block happens to the best of us, but so does rushing the process, over-editing and second-guessing.
What matters is that we learn from our setbacks and gain the tools necessary to grow and adapt.
In this post, I’m sharing my most important lessons learned from more than a decade in digital marketing, and how you can apply them to make your business more successful.
Creating content with intention means building your marketing strategy around your business goals and ideal audience, while keeping your unique value proposition and brand story top of mind.
1. More Is Not Always Better
The technique of “spraying and praying” the same piece of content on all of your channels isn’t necessarily the most effective way to reach more customers. I’ve never been a fan of this strategy, but I’ve worked on plenty of teams who thought otherwise.
It’s sometimes been such a point of contention that it brought content creation to a dead halt. But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Next time you are faced with the overwhelming pressure to post everything everywhere all at once, remember: When what you post is the exact same everywhere it appears online, your audience is likely to feel bored and unimportant.
Audience engagement with your brand can drop because they’ve quite literally “seen it all before”.
And why would they follow your business in multiple places online, if they won’t find anything new or interesting when they get there?
The content saturation approach is a surefire way to turn off new and loyal customers, because no one feels special when they know they’re getting the same treatment as everyone else!
Mix things up a little, and you’re likely to see an increase in engagement and follower count.
2. Always Create with Intention
It’s difficult to be intentional when it feels like business and technology are moving in tandem at breakneck speed.
When I began marketing for well-known organizations and brands I thought agility was the name of the game.
Slowing down is important, but being intentional doesn’t always mean sacrificing progress.
Creating content with intention means building your marketing strategy around your business goals and ideal audience, while keeping your unique value proposition and brand story top of mind.
Following this strategy will not only release a lot of tension and pressure from the content creation process, it'll free up time to focus on more important things, like running your business!
Intentional content development starts with sending your audience the right message at the best time, in the right places and in the most engaging format.
The more you practice this strategy, the easier it will be to build engagement, gain and retain customers, and activate your brand story.
Any marketing effort without a solid strategy will struggle to attract engagement or grow a supportive audience.
3. Your Audience Means Everything
Your audience should be at the center of everything you create and post as a business owner.
Too often, businesses create and post content they would want to see online, when they should be creating the kinds of content their current and future customers want to see.
Make content that takes the guess work out of who you are and what your brand stands for.
Use trends to your advantage.
Incorporate optimized keywords or hashtags for greater searchability.
Cultivate a relationship with your customers by showing up with authenticity and realness when it's appropriate.
Thought leadership, blogging and being an active presence online are also great ways to boost connection with your target market, especially when you're in a competitive market like Fort Wayne.
It’s easy to fall into a content coma, so be sure to take inspiration from your brand story, culture, values and – most importantly – your target customers!
Templates, systems and software that make your life easier are always worth the investment.
4. Plan Ahead and Strategize First; Trust Me!
One of the biggest things I’ve learned from a decade in digital marketing is that a business can’t be successful without a firm foundation for why the work you’re doing or the product you're offering matters to your audience.
You need to answer “why” before you can discuss “how” to create a successful website, social media ad, email campaign or otherwise.
Any marketing effort without a solid strategy will very likely struggle to attract engagement or grow a supportive audience.
And that online audience is directly important for the sustainable growth of your business!
A few ways to plan ahead and strategize include: identifying and researching your target customer base and thinking about future customers; creating and/or updating any ad content and tactics; ensuring the most effective ratio of digital to print collateral to market your business throughout the year; and having a specific purpose for each content channel you manage.
A solid strategy makes for relatively painless execution; don’t forget it!
5. Content is Everywhere, If You Know Where to Look
Often as marketers and business owners, we struggle to ideate fresh content. I know I’ve personally had trouble with this in the past, but I’ve realized that almost anything and everything can become valuable content. It’s all around us, we just have to know where to look.
Does your organization help schools incorporate the arts into their classrooms?
Why not showcase the impact your organization has had on your community by creating an animated, data-driven graphic for social media?
Or if you lead a performing arts center, a behind-the-scenes POV video of rehearsals could become some of your best-performing content.
Look for content everywhere, and you'll find it anywhere.
Cultivate a relationship with your customers by showing up with authenticity and realness when it's appropriate.
6. Repurposing Content is Not Cheating!
If you’ve ever managed digital content, you’ve likely re-posted an update from one platform to another, or cut down a long-form video from YouTube into a TikTok post.
It’s totally fine to repurpose content!
And there’s zero shame in re-posting a piece of content that performed really well, to compare and contrast its performance on other platforms or channels.
However you choose to use your content, just know that you’re not failing if you need to recycle something once in a while.
Just be sure to diversify those derivatives and you’re all set!
7. Work Smarter, Not Harder
Templates, standard language, brand guidelines, systems and software that make your life easier are always worth the investment.
Nothing is worse than being overwhelmed by the thought of creating yet another piece of content, when you have few tools or points of reference for doing so.
Some of my personal faves for getting shit done as a business owner are Wrike for client project management, AirTable for planning and tracking the studio's marketing content, Google Drive for staying organized and sharing documents securely, and Canva for quick-and-dirty design needs when I'm away from my beloved workstation and Adobe Illustrator!
As for inspiration, I lurk design and typography sites like The League of Movable Type, Made by Folk and the Color Blog among others too numerous to name in this post, but you get the idea!
The more personal your content feels, the better your business will stick in your audience's memory.
8. It's OK to Break the Rules a Little!
When I first started my digital marketing career, I was way too neurotic about everything I produced having perfect grammar and adhering strictly to style standards, to the point of obsession. 😬
Now after more than a decade working in marketing and advertising, I enthusiastically tell myself (and you) that it’s OK to break the rules!
Put some personality into your content with word play, use trending hashtags, or create some new vocabulary to talk about your products and services that your followers can adopt along with you.
Sometimes, breaking the rules can lead to great things!
9. Get Personal
The more personal your content feels, the better your business will stick in your audience's memory.
You can make one-on-one connections with your customers via email, social media, dynamic web content and much more.
A wealth of tools exists to create custom experiences for your audience, especially with the rise of dynamic website content, artificial intelligence (AI) tools like chat bots, and email marketing automation to name just a few.
So don’t wait … start experimenting with content personalization!
Look for content everywhere, and you'll find it anywhere.
10. Embrace Authenticity
It’s hard to be raw and real when you want to present the best version of your business and what it has to offer.
But a little authenticity can go a long way, especially when you’re cultivating support for an event or looking to introduce your business to new groups of potential customers.
It’s more important than ever to showcase what makes your business unique and special, rather than trying to fit a pre-made mold or replicate what your competitors are doing.
The more you relate to your customers on a personal level, the more loyal they will be — and the more support they’ll ultimately give you when the time is right.
