Thinking, eh? Overrated? What do you think? You do think, don’t you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here, you’d be off in Tangiers buying brass trays, Argan oil and a natty rug for the lounge.
Thinking and digital marketing isn’t a new thing but a lot of people forget the first bit.
They’re too busy thinking (here we go again) that digital marketing is an end in itself.
“You do digital marketing…that’s SEO isn’t it…I so social marketing.” This and other absurdities happen often when you let on what you do.
So, what are we going to learn about thinking and digital marketing? Well, glad you asked, here we go:
- Listening to people
- The paradox of choice
- Mulling over thoughts
- Generating ideas
PLUS
- The Zeitgeist
- Testing ideas
- Final thoughts (not death, you understand)
Listening to People
I enjoy listening more than talking, well, not all the time thank the lord and hit ‘Stop Video’ on Zoom.
But listening is a key to understanding what digital marketing is; getting more from your thoughts. Why? Well, if you know the landscape by ‘listening’ to people then your thinking is broader. It’s why to pay attention to the zeitgeist, more on this later.
In digital marketing it still means talking to actual people, the sales team, customer care AND the clients. What each is doing and why is another key to digital marketing. We use tools like hotjar and feedback software to gather information, insight really, to make sense of what we plan to do.
The Paradox of Choice
I’ve always liked this term. People, when given too much choose, that is to think about, won’t take any (action). Why do we need to know about this paradox? Because if you know all the choices you can narrow that choice down to a ‘no brainer. You want focus when you are involved in digital marketing. You want the visitor to take an action. You want that action to be clear.
Mulling over Thoughts
Love this word. There should be a scale of mulling. You know, today I had three and a half mulls about visitors not buying our ready sliced aardvark.
Seriously, thinking requires you to load your mind with information and then some more, then add your ideas, then question your ideas. In effect giving your thinking ‘a stir’.
If you ‘stir’ enough (and you have time) answers will appear, or rather you will be…
Generating Ideas
Here’s a quick one for you. Ideas, let’s call them ‘mulls’ will be needed (Or you can buy some ideas from marketing gurus, you know the ones with baseball caps worn indoors). How do you generate a lot of ideas?
You set a quota.
This is something I learned from a well-known comedy writer from the 60s and 70s. O’, not three, not four ideas, but rather fifty or one hundred. Give it a go. It may drive you mad but it WORKS.
The Zeitgeist
Which simply means the mood of the time. I see it as ‘what is the current landscape in this market’, what is happening elsewhere that I can use, are people VERY price conscious, what is the must have, what will make their peer group jealous (envy marketing is a thing, don’t like it though) and what emotion will make them take an action?
All good ingredients for stirring into your thinking.
Testing Your Ideas
The best bit. You’ve ebbed and flowed with your thinking. You’ve challenged yourself to go beyond the three or four idea mark and now…
Now you can choose the top three, you think have potential (and remember you could be wrong), now you test them.
It could be a headline for a page, new imagery, using video only and little copy, finding a new market, repurposing your content. Send them out of you thinking kitchen and see what the diners want more of, easy eh?
Final Thoughts
Thinking is addictive BUT remember, overthinking is a real thing. To overcome this, use another classic, creative element ‘time discipline’. See yourself a date and a time for when this thinking has to be on the page. Stick to it, no matter what.
Completion is important.
Creating a virtuous cycle in your digital marketing is going you a long way and you will soar above the competition and create a loyal following / customer base (unless you are an unfeeling, uncaring idiot).
Amen!
About Conversion Detectives
Conversion Detectives is a full service digital marketing agency in Hertfordshire.
We find the best quality traffic for your website and convert more of that traffic into sales or sales leads.
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