Aligning the Digital Marketing Mix in 2014 and Beyond

The Digital Essentials, Part 3

Developing a robust digital strategy is both a challenge and an opportunity. Part 3 of the Digital Essentials guide series explores five of the essential technology-driven experiences customers expect, which you may be missing or not fully utilizing.

Get the Guide

Digital marketing is typically divided into three major areas: Paid media, Earned media and Owned media. Paid media involves any traffic medium that is paid for, like paid search ads or display ads. Owned media is the channel that the company owns. For example, the company website, social media accounts, or any publications they put out. It also includes traffic for branded searches. Earned media is similar to owned but instead of creating the content yourself, it’s created by others. This includes when your content is shared by others or when the public or press decide to spread the word about your company.  It’s important for companies to make sure that the strategies for these three channels are aligned to ensure optimum performance from marketing efforts.
Why align?

It’s really important that these strategies are aligned for many reasons. First, you can build efficiencies by repurposing materials and completed research for new initiatives. You can also solve problems more quickly when all areas are more tightly aligned. Second, you can better coordinate each area’s strategies and projects. Third, results can be more easily measured and provide more clear indications if a change in one area might have impacted another. Fourth, you can uncover “hidden gems” through the improved cross-vertical communication you have established, increasing efficiency and discovering knowledge that might not have been initially passed on. For example, work that has already been completed by one area could be useful to another area. Pass it on instead of making them do the same work a second time.
How to align
The best way to improve the alignment between these digital marketing areas is to increase communication with status meetings and updates. Include everyone from all areas of digital marketing to ensure everyone gets the information they need. Make the informational sessions informative and valuable to use everyone’s time wisely.