Not that kind of digital marketing

I always joked when introducing myself as “Director of Digital Marketing” at William & Mary that my role “wasn’t that kind of digital marketing, just the organic internet-based stuff of web, email and social media.”

As part of my office’s transition from a focus on advancement to a university-wide marketing lens, we hired our first Executive Director of Marketing and Branding in 2023. She led our team through taking our first meaningful steps into paid digital marketing and SEO.

Paid marketing was a realm I had stayed on the periphery of, boosting social posts for our annual giving day to try and get our message in front of alumni in a 27-hour period, but that was about it. (Now, knowing more about how paid marketing works, those single day campaigns were definitely not the most effective or cost-efficient way to get the message out, and I’ve adjusted our approach significantly the last few years.)

Lawful good vs. digital reality

I have never liked the idea of digitally “stalking” a desired audience or paying for their attention. I was always a bit suspicious of “sponsored” results and I’d written off SEO as little more than keyword stuffing and snake oil offered by consultants to get money from unsuspecting clients. I thought that as long as you wrote good, well structured content that was of interest to your audience, you’d be ok. I’m lawful good and always want to believe that if you follow the rules you’ll win the day. That may have been true 20 years ago, but you can’t rely on good content alone anymore. You are competing for folks’ ever-diminishing attention span and the competitive landscape has exponentially increased thanks to social media and the ability for anyone to be a content creator.

In a fictional land where we didn’t rely on “free” services (search, social media) who make their money via ad revenue, perhaps great content would always win the day. But since many of the services and platforms that have become integrated into our everyday lives and workflows follow that ad revenue-based model, the vast majority of companies are going to prioritize making money.

A spot in the toolkit

I’ve only spent two-ish years really exploring this “paid digital marketing” realm, but I will now acknowledge its place in the toolkit of any marketer. I don’t love that you have to pay for the attention of your audience, but because (in general) you are a small fish in a very large pond (and everyone else is doing it), you need to throw your hat into the paid marketing ring to even come onto the radar of the audience you’re looking to engage. Now, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be highly selective and targeted with your audiences that you’re trying to reach, and create great content that truthfully and accurately provides them the information that they’re looking for, but there are now more tools you can use to successfully get that content in front of those audiences.