Our 12 Truths of Digital Marketing book was published in late 2014. Although the physical book is now out-of-print, you can get an electronic copy by subscribing to the Bam Digital monthly newsletter. To find out more about the 12 Truths book, we've written about it on this post: The Making of 12 Truths https://www.bam.com.au/blog/behind-the-scenes/the-making-of-12-truths/

2. 12 Truths about
Digital Marketing
We’ve penned these 12 truths
to assist you in navigating the
digital marketing maze.
Recent surveys show that Australian
organisations are quickly moving
to digital, yet one of the big
barriers to entry to this exciting
world is the lack of understanding
around what digital marketing
is, and what you should do.
These 12 important topics are
integral to consider in any digital
marketing plan. We share these
with you in the hope that they
help you find clarity, and your
organisation succeeds online.
Good luck!

4. Your audience has
information overload.
Our phones, tablets, laptops,
computers, televisions, billboards,
newspapers, magazines and radios
are all competing for our attention.
Your audience are receiving social
media updates, instant messages,
phone calls, emails and texts. They’re
rarely focussed only on one medium.
Technology is overwhelming
your audience; everything
electronic is competing for our
attention, and attention spans
are reducing accordingly.
For your message to reach
your audience, it needs to be
targeted, simple and powerful.
Don’t bore us, don’t overwhelm
us. Find that middle path that
attracts us to engage with you.

6. The internet is
rushing towards being
personally relevant.
Only news items you’re interested
in will be shown to you, only con-
tacts you care about will surface
on social media, only advertising
you may react to will be shown to
you. Everything else is irrelevant.
We see the evolution taking place
right now; amongst social networks,
search engines and advertising
placements. Phone applications
are becoming smarter with what
you are actually interested in,
not just what box you tick to
say you have an interest.
To market in the future is to be
relevant to your target audience.
Building relevance and relationships
is now more important than ever.
Be a destination, not a roadblock.

8. Work hard to keep your
social media content
alive and up-to-date,
and don’t forget your
website content.
Your audience wants to see
change, and this is important
for search engines too.
Google has stated that up to
35% of search results have been
reordered based on frequency
of updates to a website.
Want to reach the pinnacle of
page one in results? Spend less
time reading reports and more
time making changes. Add news,
add relevant content. Above
all, add engaging content your
audience wants, regularly.
An out-of-date presence
reflects badly. It becomes a
virtual ghost town associated
with your organisation.

10. In the golden era of the
last decade, you could
create a website and
say that you’re ‘online’.
Those days are officially over.
Nowadays, with billions of websites
vying for consumer attention, we
must migrate to where your audience
has focussed their attention.
Understanding your audience and
their online participation is the key to
success. Spending budget and effort
in chasing the wrong crowds in the
wrong places may tick the ‘do digital
marketing this year’ box, however
will prove costly and ineffective.
Everything online is in competition
with you for attention. Knowing
how to engage within these
spaces, and encourage attention
and engagement is the goal.

12. Consumers have
inbuilt mistrust
towards traditional
advertising now.
Recent global studies show
79% of consumers trust friends’
recommendations over other
forms of communication.
Belief and trust are personal traits.
Personal traits and emotions we have
with people, not with typefaces or
brand marks. Develop a personality
with your communications. You are
not a faceless organisation; you are
a collective group of people. Let this
show through your digital marketing.
We yearn to believe and trust our
products, our suppliers and our
relationships. Considering tone
and voice is equally as important
as considering visual elements.

14. The old adage a
picture is worth a
thousand words is
no more evident
than in branding.
Visual elements speak to your
audience, regardless of your intent.
Decisions are made within seconds
based on visual cues, type and
colour. Great text content and
well-thought strategy can be entirely
discarded without consideration of
the campaign or website aesthetics.
Studies show that the majority
of your audience subconsciously
consider visual design when making
decisions around how they trust a
brand or website. Cutting corners
here negates the campaign purpose.
Your designers are solving
communication problems, not
making things look pretty.

16. There are rules,
and then there
are exceptions.
Those who create rules don’t have
your audience; they don’t have
your same exact offering. Creative
marketing can break rules and
have an impact. The only rule is
to try what you believe works.
You are encouraged to break the
rules. However you should avoid
making the same mistakes. You
shouldn’t be breaking rules for
the sake of anarchy; rather you
should consider rules irrelevant if
breaking them improves results.
Learn from the data you are
collecting. Did that work or flop?
Accept failures and learn from them.

18. What’s in it for me
is so much more
powerful than what’s
in it for you.
Your audience wants to know the
benefits of working with you, or
buying your product. They don’t care
what you get out of the relationship.
All of your marketing should
consider the audience first, and
yourself second. What value are
you offering them and how can
you eloquently promote it?
Benefits resound with your
audience better than features.
Don’t just publish a wordy list of
30 great features. Explain how
you will improve their lives or help
them solve a problem they face.

20. Billions of unwanted
emails are sent
every day.
Email inboxes are inflating by
the hour. Cutting through the
noise and gaining attention using
email marketing is part creative,
part science. Email is used more
frequently than the web. More
people have access to email than
general web surfing, the world over.
Whilst it is tempting and very
cost effective to jump headlong
in without great planning and
consideration, the fallout from
bad strategy can be large.
You really don’t want to be
considered a spammer.
Understand permission and
how your emails are relevant to
your audience. Personalise and
segment your audience, and
above all, write smart content
that engages not broadcasts.

22. We are connecting
more things to the
internet than ever.
Once the realm of computers alone,
now mobile phones, televisions,
game consoles, laptops, small
tablets, large tablets, interactive
screens are all connected.
The future of ‘mobile first’ is steadily
marching forward towards us. What
works nicely on a large monitor may
be ineffective on a small device.
We must consider situation as well
as technical restraints. Even if we
can display a large file of animated
graphics on a small device, will
your audience want this if they
are on public transport, planes,
between meetings, in cafes?

24. Marketing not tested
is wasted marketing.
There are tools available to us that
can accurately measure the
engagement impact of each
change in campaign, no matter
how subtle. No other platform has
the capability to be as precise or
measurable as the digital space.
Effort in testing brings rewards.
Understanding consumer drivers
should never be a ‘gut feeling’.
Science and mathematics are key
to successful digital marketing.
Make a change, watch the
effect, analyse what happened.
Make another change. Another
review, another refinement.
Triple digit improvements can be
made with simple of changes. The
science is understanding what they
are, and when to do or not do, them.

27. www.bam.com.au