Marketing’s magic bullets

I’ve worked in content and social marketing since before those terms really existed. You didn’t even have to pay to reach an audience on Facebook! So a lot has changed under my watch – including everything about the way we connect with customers – yet most companies haven’t.

I saw businesses trying to go digital making mistakes (which is understandable) and then making the same mistakes over and over again (which really isn’t).

Mistakes such as:

• Believing in ‘Magic Bullet’ solutions to achieving better SEO and Google rankings
• Trying to game the Facebook algorithm, and losing
• Thinking that just putting an ad in front of a mass audience alone would generate sales
• No understanding of the buyer’s journey or strategy for converting customers
• No strategy around using content to inbound and nurture leads
• No oversight of the end to end user experience or path to purchase
• No strategy around the post-purchase experience
• Building products that meet their needs, rather than their customers needs

But the biggest mistake I saw was a belief and reliance on traditional marketing that refused to die. I saw millions of dollars, and spent millions myself, on traditional media with no transparency, no attribution, and little or no effect.  

However, when we got the right media mix, smart use of data and segmentation, and customer experience working in harmony – I saw the impact this can have on a business. We bucked trends that had lasted years, smashed traffic numbers (we actually broke our website, we had so many customers trying to purchase), and closed significant gaps in revenue targets.

So I knew that I had strategies and ideas that could help other businesses, ones who were ready to make a change, invest in their digital future, and to achieve real results for themselves.

Because the way businesses connect with customers (and vice-versa) has fundamentally changed. For the most part, reaching out to customers doesn’t work any more. But being ready when customers are reaching out for their services… that does work.

H&D’s focus is in exactly that – we don’t deal in the immeasurable, the unpredictable, or the unproductive. We measure ourselves against the clicks, traffic, leads, and customers that we deliver to you.

No magic bullets. Just real results.