It’s really hard to get a general idea of what the future of digital marketing will be, considering the fact that trends, expectations, and technology change really fast. But as a new business owner, how are you going to know that unless you’ve previously worked in marketing?
No, really, there’s a very specific kind of betrayal that happens when a new business owner finally sits down to “learn marketing,” opens a course, a book, or some blog post from a few years ago, and instantly gets the feeling that the advice is talking about a completely different internet. Well, it probably is.
Sure, it’s very obvious when something is outdated when it’s from 2019, or 2020, or even 2021, but after that? Well, it probably still is, honestly. But it’s true, because customers aren’t just typing one neat question into Google and clicking the first business that shows up (maybe in the 2000s, but not anymore).
They’re asking ChatGPT for recommendations, checking TikTok because apparently that’s a search engine now, reading Reddit threads because they want people to be brutally honest, scanning reviews, looking at comments, comparing brands, forgetting what they searched, coming back later, and making decisions in a way that feels much less like a funnel.
It’s a lot to chew, isn’t it? But yeah, things have changed so much, it’s a fair question to ask.
A lot of classic marketing advice still has a place, so no, nobody needs to throw every business book into the bin and start taking strategy tips from random TikTok comments (or a bunch of college students who are acting overconfident because that’s super common, too). So, to a degree, a lot of advice, well, basic advice will work, but the way those pieces work together has changed.
A blog post from 2019 might still explain SEO in a useful way, but it probably wasn’t written for a search page where AI answers show up before the traditional results. It’s more like that, so nothing about these is inherently pointless.
So, this was already mentioned once, but it doesn’t hurt to bring it up again, though. But new business owners can get caught off guard because customer behavior doesn’t always match the marketing diagrams during market research. Someone might discover a brand on TikTok, check reviews on Google, ask ChatGPT for alternatives, read Reddit to see if people complain about that type of product, then come back through Instagram days later. Maybe you’re similar.
Plus, you should also keep in mind here that customers aren’t always in one place, and they’re not always moving in a straight line. Instead, they’re usually collecting trust in tiny pieces, which is honestly rude because it makes marketing harder, but okay, here everyone is.
At first, handling marketing alone feels sensible, because new businesses usually don’t have piles of money just sitting around waiting to be spent on software, ads, content, strategy, and someone who understands analytics without looking personally betrayed by a spreadsheet. Usually, it’s all DIY, hence learning about marketing in the first place. But of course, when you’re DIYing all of this, you’re doing ALL the marketing, meaning there’s a lot of work. And it could stretch you thin; it will stretch your whole team thin.
Well, a professional digital marketing agency is going to have no choice but to keep up with all the technical changes, the industry standards, the trends, the new channels, the new platforms, audience expectations, tools, and the list goes on. White, sure, most marketing resources are fairly relevant still, wouldn’t it be easier to just get a professional to play catch-up instead of you? It’s cheaper in the long run, at least.
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