What Is the Foundation of Modern Marketing?
Regular readers will note that we talk a lot about Digital Footprint, and you may be familiar with our Digital Basics service — but it’s worth spending some time discussing the foundation of modern marketing further. Why? Because marketing technology keeps advancing faster and faster, and it’s easy to forget your roots (or, better said, your “foundation”).
If you’re over 70, you remember a time when out houses were more common than indoor plumbing. If you’re over 60, you remember a time when cars didn’t have seat belts. If you’re over 50, you remember a time when cameras needed film and flash bulbs, and photos took over a week to print.
If you’re under 30, you don’t remember a time when smart phones didn’t exist. If you’re under 20, you don’t remember a time when social media didn’t exist. If you’re under 10, you won’t remember a time when AI didn’t exist in common use.
And yet, the underlying human behavior that has driven classical marketing theory for over a century is relatively unchanged. On the other hand, how professional marketers target, communicate, and reach people has changed dramatically several times over during that same period of time. This juxtaposition is captured in our Basic Marketing Formula we’ve shared here in the blog many times.
Read More: Marketing 101
So What Matters in this Modern, Digital Age of Marketing?
We describe the foundation of modern marketing as your Digital Footprint. You can define broadly as everything that can be found about your business on-line. We think of it as the day in, day out “blocking and tackling” every business needs to do on-line to be found, and to engage new customers successfully.
Read More: Digital Footprint Checklist
Those of you over 40 might be able to follow an analogy that this is the modern day version of the yellow pages. My daughters, for example, are 21 as of this writing, and have no idea what I’m talking about. Until the dawn of Google (and Lycos, Snap, Yahoo, etc) in the early-to-mid ’90s, people primarily found products and services in the yellow pages. And every business spent between tens and tens of thousands of dollars every month in the yellow pages to be found. Today, you need to manage your digital footprint, which is the modern equivalent of being found when people seek out your products and services.
The Elements of Digital Footprint
We break Digital Footprint down into 4 primary sections:
- Major Directories
- Website & SEO
- Social Media & CRM
- Reviews & Reputation
Together, these form the foundation of modern marketing whether you’re a small business or a member of the Fortune 500.
Read More: Major Directories
Read More: Website & SEO
Read More: Social Media & CRM
Read More: Reviews & Reputation
We Believe in Digital Footprint as a Foundation on Which All Other Marketing is Built
In fact, we think it’s so important we offer a free audit of your digital footprint. It’s part of how we invest in new clients before they ever invest in us. Auditing your digital footprint is how we get to know you and your business. And we follow it up with a free initial consultation where our experts walk you through the results of your audit.
If it’s not time for that yet, sign up for our free e-mail newsletter about local marketing so you get notified whenever we publish more helpful articles like this one. You can also search our extensive Local Marketing Blog for any topic of interest to you.
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