I had occasion to speak with a prospect on a Zoom call the other day. She was looking for help in establishing her brand and marketing her online workshops and published materials. She insisted those things could be accomplished only by a digital marketing agency.
I suggested digital marketing (or online marketing) simply means promoting stuff through digital channels using electronic technology, as opposed to print. I told her we employ tactics like email, social media, web-based advertising, text and multimedia messages, webinars, search engines, online customer communities, and other digital platforms. I even went so far as to suggest radio and TV ads could be considered digital marketing these days since … well … I opted to skip the breakdown of the digital electronics involved.
None of it mattered anyway. She was unmoved.
She told me she’d recently spoken with another person about her branding and marketing needs. That other person professed to run a digital marketing agency. That’s when the conversation got really interesting.
Here’s a transcript of the way it transpired, edited for brevity. (Clarity and sanity were a bit too much to hope for.) Her part of the conversation is designated as DG (Digital Guru). My side of the conversation will be represented by YT (Yours Truly):
YT: How do you know this other person runs a digital marketing agency?
DG: Because she told me she does, and her website says so. Yours doesn’t.
YT: You looked at my website?
DG: Yes.
YT: Do you realize my website exists in a digital medium?
DG: What does that have to do with anything?
YT: Ooh … this is going to be tougher than I thought.
DG: What?
YT: Nothing. I didn’t say anything.
DG: But I heard …
YT: What if we created a website for your business — drove traffic to it using email; social media; web, radio, and TV ads; webinars, and other forms of digital communication — and never put one thing in print?
DG: You do all that stuff?
YT: Yeah.
DG: But you’re not a digital marketing agency.
YT: Yes, we are.
DG: I don’t believe you. Your website doesn’t say that.
YT: If I added digital marketing agency to my website right now, while we’re talking — if you were able to refresh your browser, see it right away, and understood I made that change digitally — would you believe it then?
DG: No.
YT: Why not?
DG: Because you’d just be trying to fool … why are you holding a gun to your head?
YT: Never mind. Have you ever heard of a digital twin?
DG: Yes. Why?
YT: Because I’m not me. On this Zoom call, you’ve actually been seeing and talking with my digital twin.
DG: You mean you don’t even exist?
YT: Nope. I’m a digital figment of someone’s imagination. I just can’t figure out if it’s mine or yours.
DG: You’re hired.
Definitions Are Everything
Before I start talking, I find it prudent to know what I’m talking about. But that’s just me. Some people find it a bit odd, if not off-putting … or worse. (As my friend, Yonason Goldson, wrote to me recently, “Look what happened to Socrates. And all he did was ask questions.”) But since I manage to find my Big Boy Pants most mornings, I plug along.
On the subject of definitions, and since the big hand is on the 20 and the little hand is on the 24, it’s time for most communication to take place digitally, whether it’s marketing or not. So, if you want to make a distinction between digital marketing and anything other than print, good luck finding an agency that employs cave art, smoke signals, drumbeats, carrier pigeons, or — if you want to go back even farther than that — fax machines.
This isn’t called The Digital Age for nothing.
