Mastering the Art of Digital Marketing: Choosing the Right Method for Your Business

Prologue

Alongside my consulting and branding activities in my company, I served for several years as the marketing manager in a digital marketing agency for a social organization that provides loans under special conditions to families, small businesses, and individuals facing economic challenges. In one of the meetings, a proposal came up suggesting that the organization start a podcast to establish an ongoing relationship with potential borrowers. I was surprised and replied, “Our borrowers are interested in us when they need a loan, not before or after that.” I continued, “Perhaps, if and when we decide to engage people in social activities, it would make sense to build an audience that follows us through relevant content and maybe even a community. But at this moment, what’s the point? There are marketing methods that are much more suitable for us, given our target audience and industry.” The response I received was one I had heard before from many content creators: “If the content is interesting enough, they will follow the podcast.” However, my experience showed that in marketing situations like the one the organization operates in, they don’t. While the organization can transform itself into a communication entity and create engaging content to attract an interested audience, it seems that it won’t be the audience in need of a loan, and the marketing benefit won’t justify the cost.

Effective Marketing Strategy for the Travel Industry

Let’s look at another example: For several years, I provided guidance to a leading company in the organized travel industry. One day, I learned that the social media agency they worked with recommended starting Instagram activities. I was curious and asked, “What do you plan to do on Instagram?” They replied, “We will share travel photos and engage with the guides. We have great visual materials.” I then asked, “Are you aware that the majority of travelers on organized tours, except for specific remote destinations, are aged 75 and older, and less than 2% of them are active on Instagram?” They didn’t consider this factor relevant. I suggested an idea, saying, “Perhaps we can use Instagram in a more strategic and creative way to appeal to the grandchildren of our travelers and create an interest in family trips funded by grandparents.” It didn’t help; they remained convinced of their approach.

Effectiveness begins with choosing the right marketing model.

Strategic Media Planning

My experience teaches me that in order to make informed decisions, allocate budgets effectively, and achieve the best results in digital marketing, managers need to select a suitable marketing strategy model that aligns with their business and the marketing environment they operate in. Businesses may choose the platforms where their target audience is present, learn about the customer journey, target or let algorithms from Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, or Google Ads find the right audience for them, and, of course, craft messages and create tailored content for the target audience. All of these are important. However, at a more strategic level, it is possible to choose a marketing action pattern that precisely aligns all these decisions under an organized framework of the business’s relationship with its customers.

The Decision-Making Model for Marketing Managers

Over a decade ago, I developed a decision-making tool for marketers that I have refined and tested with dozens of clients from various industries in different countries. The result is the “Glove Model.” It consists of five different marketing models, each of which is highly distinct from the others and suitable for the needs of different businesses. Each model helps understand the customers’ expectations, their customer journey, how to reach and sell to them, provide the desired experience, and, if possible, retain them as loyal customers. Each model includes relevant guidelines and tools.

The Community Model

The Community Model is suitable for organizations that maintain an ongoing and intensive relationship with their customer base (or with another influential audience) that, includes professionals, serious hobbyists, fans, supporters, social or political activists, residents, and more. The experience sought by customers in the “Community Model” is a sense of belonging, being recognized, valued, and appreciated. The model shows how to transform these audiences into an effective community aligned with the organization’s goals, how to use in-depth content for advanced members, “insider information,” and more.