Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

Jennifer Brennan

What’s in it for me? Why the individual should still be at the heart of your digital strategy

By Jennifer Brennan, Digital Strategist at Fox Agency

We all know the sayings, dream big, aim high, shoot for the moon and you’ll land amongst the stars.

All of these supposedly inspirational idioms promote reaching for the largest or highest goal in order to be considered successful. But arguably what we should be thinking about isn’t the masses, it’s the individual. When it comes to marketing, particularly digital marketing, casting the net wide and trying to capture a large group of people will not necessarily lead to success. We need to think on an individual level, solve an individual problem and more often than not, this is the way to reel in mass customer engagement, mass ROI and mass success.

Sometimes we can try and reinvent the wheel when it comes to digital marketing, when in fact the trick is going back to basics. You don’t need me to tell you that the world has changed dramatically. However, it might be worth me letting you know that despite all the madness we’ve endured, digital marketing as a discipline and a set of tactics hasn’t really changed. Our intention to meet the needs of an individual through numerous strategic means remains unchanged.

What’s in it for me?

The internet’s ability to allow us to self-serve on demand information at the touch of a button, a swipe of a screen, whatever, means that when customers approach your online content, the last thing they want to do is work to find the information they need.

Place yourself in your audience’s shoes. Do they really want to hear all your company’s self-promotion and self-interest? Absolutely not. Your website, social media post or email needs to be addressing the interests of the customer, answering their question loud and clear when they query, ‘what’s in it for me?’.

Ensuring your customers have the experience you want them to have with your online content requires a shift in focus. Rather than displaying what you offer, instead focus your content around what the customer is looking for. By this, we are not trying to cater to the masses and offer everything to everyone, but instead creating an experience in which the customer comes first and their individual need guides their journey.

Wait, why am I on this webpage? The answer should be abundantly clear.

Get by with a little help from AI friends

Placing the individual at the heart of your digital strategy has become a whole lot easier thanks to developments in AI. With the ability to collect data, analyse and apply it, then learn from it, AI enables us to create micro-strategies for each individual, tailored to their interests, and often nowadays, delivered with their name on.

Additionally, you can depend on AI friends to supply the on-demand information we all crave so much. Through AI enabled chatbots, we can provide individual answers and information immediately, giving a feeling of 1:1 customer care. Your individual hasn’t had to search out information for themselves and find a webpage written for every Tom, Dick and Harry. Instead, they gain a response specifically for them, answering their individual need.

Testing, testing, 1-2-3

With the help of analytics, we can see with great accuracy how your audience is reacting to your content. Experimenting can help you test what works and refine your content or messaging. If engagement is low, it gives you a chance to ‘test and learn’ to really understand what your audience is interested in. Move away from seeing a low click-through rate (CTR) as negative, and instead view it as valuable feedback and a learning experience to refine your messaging.

The ‘test and learn’ approach is one of the many benefits of digital marketing. In other forms of advertising, you don’t get the same instant feedback. If you plaster a billboard in all the wrong messaging, you’ll never really know where you missed the mark or why you just wasted a tonne of time and money.

Make a revolution but don’t reinvent the wheel

In short, your client is offering something that will address a need, want or concern, so make sure you’re telling people that, providing on-demand information, and answering the age-old question, ‘what’s in it for me?’. To make a revolution, it is generally beneficial to go back to basics, so although the world may have changed drastically, when it comes to digital marketing the individual still needs to be at the centre of the universe.