How Great Can A Digital Marketer Be? As Great As The Brands They Are Marketing.
I read Scott Stratten’s book Unmarketing probably about 8 years ago and I actually met him at a talk he gave in Detroit not long after. As I recall it one of his topics he was heavy on at the time was how much time, effort and money brands put into designing and redesigning their logos and how silly that undertaking could be. His point was no logo, no marketing, no nothing - can save your company if your company sucks. This lesson has come back to present itself to me once again in real life fashion as I set about building more communities for brands other than my own.
You see, it’s true that a digital marketer can really only be as good (to a degree) as the brands he/she is marketing. Many good football coaches take over a new program that is in the dumps and they go 1-11 or so in their first year. Doesn't mean they're not a great coach anymore - it just means you can't make chicken salad out of chicken poop. With time and the right support you get the right game plan and people in place and you can win. Same can be said for brands. I'm KILLING it with Five Guys Michigan right now - daily growth and tons of engagement - tons of ORGANIC reach on Facebook. Okay.......but Doug before you break your arm patting yourself on the back……you're killing it because yes you are good at this, you’re working hard and you're doing really good work for them, BUT Five Guys is a great brand that does a fantastic job at what they do and they have a RABID following. You know how much easier it is to market for a company that has established that level of love for their brand?
It All Comes Back To The Business Being Marketed
It all comes back to your business. Social media won't save you and grow your business to the highest heights if you suck. If your business has struggled social media certainly can help reestablish and repair your brand if you are going to give the effort with fixing the things that needed improvement. And I suppose it can even mask some of your issues a little by providing value online if you’re doing a bad job offline. BUT be careful with that - becoming more visible online can also expose you even more if people can find you more easily. Consumers can rip you to shreds - remember the Internet has shifted the power to the consumer which is what gives smaller brands an advantage they had lost to big box retailers with the big budgets. The Five Guys Michigan franchise group is having a lot of success on Facebook because of two things: 1) They have a good marketer (me) and 2) they have an awesome product and customer experience.
Now my other clients are just fine - they are great companies. But as a marketer it's not the same slam dunk for the car wash or HVAC companies that it is for Five Guys. Post a big photo of a delicious burger and people go wild - they like, comment, and share. A furnace - maybe not quite as much - it doesn’t have that nearly universal mouth-watering appeal. That's where you really find out what you're made of. Can you be creative enough to build a community there? Well the company better be doing a great job - if they are they WILL have fans - and they do. This is why I say I’ll only work with the brands I believe in. If you can identify the companies that are solid who recognize you as the same, and build a community around a service or product that might not be that “sexy”, THEN - that’s when you know you're good.
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com.
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