Digital Marketing – Some DOS & DON’TS

Hi All,

I was reading an article that was published in the 4Ps business magazine when I came across this very informative table which talks about some dos and don'ts of digital marketing. Thought it was worth sharing...

Some DOS & DON’TS of Digital Marketing

Online Media
Do	Don’t
Try to learn what people do on the site your online media piece is hosted on	Try to convert the intent of the people on the site you are hosted by
Have a function in mind for your online media piece	Force the user into too many clicks to get to where he wants to
Have a business objective that is measurable and unique for online media buy	Trick users to think that they are going somewhere else
Use rich media, experiential and entertaining technologies if the site population enjoys that	Think that remembering your brand from a banner is enough
Get metrics that you can use for the next time	Diverge radically from your look and feel without a reason
Search Engine
Do	Don’t
Make search engine optimization and marketing a legitimate funded part of your year plan	Forget to make search engine optimization as a priority
Remember that Google is not the only search engine	Forget that in most of the days the majority of your web users will come from search engines
Recognize what the user is searching for and figure out how the brand can help	Settle for a second or third placement for searches on your own brand name
Link outward to places relevant to the user. This increases your relevancy to the user	Forget to tailor your pages for maximum search potential
Make specific section of your site do specific jobs that the user may search for	Force people away from relevant search returns to view your brand
Blogger Outreach
Dos	Don’t
Remember that everyone can be the media now	Try to con them without having read what they write
Treat your blogger friends as though they had a listenership of a million people. Tomorrow they may	Lie to them. One principle joy of a blogger is to make drama situations where they were disrespected
Provide bloggers with the things they need: news, content and the right to feel important	Spam bloggers as a group
Trust them with early news and remember who kept the trust	Forget to be funny, entertaining and interesting. The blogger is looking for a story. Don’t forget to make a story out of your conversation with them – One that can coopt their ‘elevator conversation’
Incentivise them to do what they do best
Mobile
Do	Don’t
Remember that this is the user’s most trusted friend	Send a brand only message
Find a function that the user really wants to access over his cell phone and deliver it	Think that ringtones and patterns are enough to stay on top of mind
Let users interact with each other when possible	Share users’ information ever
Remember that people have their phones with them even during times when they are away from their computer	Forget that just because the user opted in once, they necessarily want to opt it every time
Let the user decide when and how he wants to be talked over the phone	Forget that some people text more than they call and play games more than they do both