How do you tell the difference between a good digital marketer and a bad one?

If you are a business or startup owner, chances are someone, an individual or agency have approached you, trying to offer their marketing services.

So how do you tell if they’re experienced and is good at what they do?

Simple.

Tell them your marketing budget and see what they say.

Let’s imagine, you run a bakery. Here’s something you’d say:

“Alright, I have a RM40,000 budget allocated for marketing. My KPI is to get more customers coming in through my doors. What can you do for me?”

The typical self-pronounced ‘Facebook marketer’ would start coming out with proposals on how Facebook could increase your revenue. That ‘social media expert’ will begin to show you a plan of how you can grow your business through social media.

Inexperienced digital marketers are usually biased.

The problem is that the typical ‘Facebook marketer’ will propose ANY company he approaches to do Facebook marketing, just because that is what he is good at. But what if marketing on Facebook or going digital isn’t effective for your brand or company?

Not all brands or businesses benefits from Facebook, social media or sometimes even the digital world.

Take a look at Apple’s Facebook page below. Do you see any posts? The company does not create day to day social media posts, to get their ‘target markets’ engaged, as what many Facebook marketers would want you to believe is a must.

Do you see any posts on Apple’s Facebook page?

Apple probably found that there’s no need for Facebook marketing. The company uses other effective methods (Apple event, press releases, billboards, etc.) that worked for them to market their products.

What does this tell you?

Marketing Should Start From The Top

A good marketer or agency should look at a marketing project from the top. The bigger picture.

If I were to give you a RM100,000 marketing budget, where would you allocate the budget?  Mobile advertising? Or maybe put 80% of that budget into a TV ad and the remaining 20% budget for YouTube ads?

The answer depends on where your target audience is at. Use the channels and platforms available to reach your customers.

In fact, some businesses benefit better with traditional marketing, such as flyers, billboards, posters, TV, and radio. Traditional media isn’t dead and is in fact, still very much alive. It’s the media and the articles you read every day on Facebook, that wants you to believe that traditional media is dead and you should do digital marketing.

Here’s one more. You have probably seen this if you’re in Malaysia:

A deal & discount app, doing advertising on a bus?

Fave (formerly Groupon), a deal & discount app is one of the fastest growing tech startups in South East Asia. If Facebook is the MOST effective marketing platform to market on, why does Fave not simply focus all their marketing on Facebook? Why bother putting up ads on a bus? Not only that would be expensive, you can’t even track clicks or hits on those kinds of ads.

I may be wrong, but it is probably because Fave have found that the bus ad has helped them reach out to a wider target audience and is also doing a huge part in brand awareness.

It’s Time To Kill Digital Marketers

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do Facebook Marketing or digital marketing. What I’m saying is platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Google, are merely platforms, where you can use to reach your target customers.

To do effective marketing, you need to look from the top. Start with a strategy.

And it’s your duty as a startup or business owner to be knowledgeable about the many marketing channels or platforms you can use.

If you want to get a complete knowledge on digital marketing, plus a certification, I suggest attending a free digital marketing workshop conducted by one of my mentor and friend, Charles of DMC Consultancy.

Click here to find a workshop date and register for free. (Workshop is held in KL)