The Key SME Digital Marketing Skills

The Key SME Digital Marketing Skills

I often hear the key to great digital marketing is skills in: SEO, PPC, SEM, Social Media, HTML, UX, Analytics, PHP plus a whole lot of other geeky stuff. No doubt they’re powerful. But are they key? I’m not so sure. This is because digital marketing is, an ever more competitive, zero-sum, escalating war with your competitors using: search marketing, blogging, social media and much else. Pricing is now more transparent that previously. Buyers are more informed. They can compare the offerings of 10 competitors, in minutes. So if you’ve a “me too” product, at a “me too” price, backed by “me too” service you’ll be constantly paddling your canoe against the stream. Sooner or later, no amount of digital marketing geekery will fix your underlying marketing.

What Works?

Put simply you first need an effective combination of a: great product, great price, backed by great people, processes and physical evidence. (Sorry you can’t have all of these at once.) You need to understand what makes your company, its products and its services special. Then, on this basis, promote them like there’s no tomorrow.
When was the last time you thought: “Why are we special? “
What’s key? The key in this process is deeply understanding your markets so you can create a compellingly different product (or service). All of my successful clients seem to understand this.

What are the key skills I need?

In order to differentiate your company from its competitors you need skills in:
  • Branding (this is not corporate identity)
  • Customer segmentation
  • Directional policy matrices to identify your most favourable markets.
  • Positioning
  • Customer analysis
  • Pricing
  • Product/service development
  • Plus a whole lot more
Without them your digital marketing will be built in sand – and subside. Slowly or not. Getting your marketing proposition right will cost a small percentage of your digital marketing budgets. Ignore it at your peril.

Next Steps

Contact me for help with your marketing (digital or otherwise) or give me a call on 0208 998 5728.