The Digital Marketer

We must believe that it is the darkest before the dawn of a beautiful new world. We will see it when we believe it." Saul Alinsky (American community organizer and writer)

The core of this book is around explaining to the vast community of "classic" marketers what the "New Brave Marketing World" is and how the radical changes we experienced in the last few years are actually a great and positive step forward. Most of the book is dedicated to explain the 10 key professional skills will be key for marketers in this New World.

I have personally experienced the disconnection between realizing that that there is no way back from the "Digital Revolution" and the inertial attitude of "doing things in the classic/traditional/proper way!". And I find a bit unusual that many corporations have still a "Digital Marketing Team" as a separate entity - often not even reporting to the CMO - maybe reflecting the classic corporate attitude of "if there is a problem, creating is team is the solution!"

This book has the ambition to focus on the other (bright...) side of the coin. Customer Journey, Big Data, Touch-Points Models, Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), Predictive Analytics etc. could sound like cryptic and slightly scary terms. Nevertheless, they underline the radical and positive move from marketing being traditionally about "Persuasion" to nowadays' focus on "Engagement". And that's the mission of the "Digital Marketer", facilitating the dialogue between the people and the corporation, more than delivering often meaningless messages to estranged "consumers"!

In summary, while most of the book focuses on explaining in details the different skills/models/tools that the marketers need to learn to "survive" in the "Digital Age", there is a powerful message that is reiterated in nearly every page. Social media, marketing automation, analytics, 1-2-1, loyalty schemes etc. are about one single powerful concept, "Customer-Centricity". The earlier we realize this is not anymore an empty slogan to use in marketing and sales pitches, but it is now the starting point for everything, the more successful (and satisfied...) we will be!

Read more from Riccardo Brenna here.