Agile Business Marketing and Support Methods in the Digital Age

No organisation can exist today without being familiar with digital marketing and support methodologies. We are firmly in the 21st century, and that means older business support methods are being denigrated regularly in order to pave the way for more agile ones that are just as effective, or even more so.

This impetus towards embracing digital methodologies requires a concerted effort on the part of both corporate executives and those down in the trenches to understand the basics of as many as these marketing and digital support methods as possible. To do otherwise is to hinder your organisational growth — or, worse yet, risk obsolescence.

Understanding the Role of Organic Digital Marketing

As crucial as more directly influenced digital marketing methods can be to your organisational success, more so-called organic methods are just as invaluable. Organic digital marketing is almost exclusively the purview of search engine optimisation, with the core of SEO revolving around the research, analysis, and natural placement of keywords in digital content in order to attract organically higher traffic to that content.

Organic search results are the primary driver of a large proportion of online interaction. With researchers estimating that worldwide internet use is likely to exceed 50 percent in 2021 and continue to grow ever higher in the future, the global reach and availability of a simple web search can place your organisation in front of international audiences. Yet this is only effective if your company’s online presence has content that is keyed to display prominently on search engine results pages.

There are, of course, a handful of popular search engines in the market. However, to ignore the elephant in the room i.e., Google would be pure folly; a site or keyword’s Google ranking is the clearest indicator of its overall efficacy when it comes to attracting traffic. This makes it imperative to understand the processes behind SEO monitoring and rank tracking, all of which are active ones that require constant monitoring and modification. The concepts behind what keywords work over others and then how to place them in your content to attract the most positive attention are constantly in flux, and this requires digital marketers to demonstrate agility in order to keep up with the ever-changing landscape.

Using Social Media Marketing Methodologies to Target and Influence

Digital marketing today is often thought to be synonymous with social media, and for good reason: social media platforms are excellent resources for any organisation seeking to build support for their brand, spread their message, or any other marketing goals they may have. The primary advantage of social media marketing is the highly robust tools that have been developed for these platforms to target and influence specific user demographics.

The fact that there are around 3.78 billion daily active social media users means that there is a vast pool of prospects to pull from in the first place. Platforms like Facebook that feature advertising tools with high levels of granularity in their targeting options provide the ultimate in flexibility for picking and choosing which demographics organisations wish to interact with. This often goes further than simply age, gender, and general geographic location, extending organisations the option to target users that have consumed specific types of media or visited relevant locations.

Meanwhile, organisations and businesses can and do forge partnerships with social media influencers, individuals with a large social media following that often have literal armies of individuals hanging off their every word. Businesses that enter into positive relationships with influencers that reflect demographics these businesses wish to target can often reap many of the same rewards as a direct promotion across an entire platform.

Striking the Balance Between Targeted Influence and Organic Growth

With targeted influence and organic growth being the two primary methodologies used in digital marketing today, there is a natural inclination to use one over the other, as if there are value judgments to be made regarding one’s ultimate efficacy over another. Yet the truth is that these two approaches aren’t diametrically opposed but are, instead, simply two sides of the same coin.

Digital marketing has never been a zero-sum game. Choosing one approach over the other leaves organisations vulnerable in that they are not availing themselves of the totality of their marketing resources, and such a choice is the farthest thing from demonstrating agility. All things being equal, such as the expertise of those managing these two disparate marketing campaigns, businesses are better suited combining both approaches instead of relying on simply one.

Yes, it’s certainly true that targeted influence marketing on social media might have more quantifiable results in the shorter term, but the resource cost of such a campaign may be prohibitive. Meanwhile, organic SEO is a long-term payoff but is otherwise characterised as requiring little in the way of resource investment besides time and patience. The balance your organisation strikes between the two will be unique, depending on your own particular needs and resources, but the key to remaining agile is to pinpoint that balance and implement it appropriately in the context of your business.

The Final Word on Agile Digital Marketing and Support

The world of digital marketing is a fast-paced one, with best practices and standard operating procedures changing almost daily. This can present as hectic and disorganised, but the truth is that the digital marketing landscape is as dynamic as its goals: the continued success and growth of your business. Rigidly refusing to adapt to a rapidly evolving paradigm does little to nothing to ensure the growth of your organisation, so embrace the fluid nature of the digital age. Doing so will likely bring success in the future.