Team Talk: A digital marketer’s holiday wish list

We’ve had a great year here at Stryve, and I have it on pretty good authority that we’ve even made it onto Santa’s ‘nice’ list. Since it’s that time of year and everyone’s scrambling to get their holiday shopping done, we thought we’d help you out by putting together a list of our own. What kind of list? A digital marketing wish list, of course!

So, if you’re feeling extra generous this holiday season, here are some completely practical gift ideas for the digital marketer in your life.

1) “For young people to learn that digital marketing is more than Facebook ads and influencers” – Liza

I’ve come to terms with the fact my grandparents will never understand what I do. They’ll nod and smile and say they’re proud of me when really, they have no idea what I’m talking about. I get it because they’re from an older generation, but what I can’t come to terms with is how many young people are just as clueless. The extent of a lot of people’s digital marketing awareness begins and ends at social media and influencers. When I tell someone I work at a “digital marketing agency”, the response is usually something along the lines of, “Soooo what do you do? Make Facebook ads all day?”  *sigh*

It’s not entirely their fault, though. Compared to other industries and professions, digital marketing is practically an infant. Even business schools fail to place a large focus on the digital space, instead focusing more on traditional marketing methods like print, TV, and radio. That said, things are a-changing and it’s time for young people to pay attention!

2) “For all ad platforms to copy Twitter’s back-end structure” – Sarah

I’ve spent many years launching campaigns on various ad platforms. Some of them are OK, and some of them make me want to rip my hair out. Twitter’s is excellent. The structure of their campaigns gives me ultimate control to craft a strategy that works for my specific client’s goals. Budgets, bid strategies, and targeting can easily be set at a campaign or ad group level. Assigning creatives to a campaign is a breeze because you can do it either from the campaign or the creative manager.

That said, if you’re from Twitter and feeling really good about yourself, I still have a wish list item for you: dynamic or easy A/B testing setup for creative. I’m sick of copy/pasting a bunch of variations in. Copy Facebook on that one, please.

3) “For Google Ads reps to stop calling me” – Kaleigh

Between all the spam calls, robocalls, and now Google Ads reps calling me, my phone has been ringing off the hook. As a millennial, unplanned phone calls are my nightmare, but I’ll happily take a call if it means a valuable conversation. Keyword: valuable. The last time I took a call from a Google Ads rep, I thought maybe I’d get some insightful campaign feedback. Nope! Instead, they wasted my time with the most basic of questions (“how many campaigns are you running?” “What are the budgets?’). Seriously, 30 minutes of asking questions they could have answered in 30 seconds by just looking at my account. Trust me, I’m not the only one who is so over Google Ads reps. At the very least, if you’re going to give me a bunch of irrelevant ‘insights’, send me an email. Bah, humbug!

4) For the bar to be raised on what we call “innovation” – Kyle

I just picked up a Microsoft Surface Pro 7 on Black Friday. It works as a tablet and laptop, with a magnetic keyboard and a built-in kickstand. It has a pen that interacts with the screen better than anything else on the market and has a slew of other updates from the previous 6 models. Gun to my head, I’d describe the Surface Pro 7 as innovative.

What isn’t innovative is updating an ad with new copy or swapping the image on a landing page – these are just changes you make because that’s what you do. Sure, they might fall under Merriam Webster’s definition, “to make changes / do something in a new way” but come onnnnnn. I don’t go around calling my Corn Flakes “breakfast cuisine”. I’m careful with my work, but I wouldn’t call it “expert precision”. As an industry, can we just dial down the flash and stop overhyping everything as innovation?

For Christmas, I’m asking for all marketers to think of “innovation” in the same way we think of “love”. Save it for something special, don’t say it too much, and when you innovate, innovate with all your heart.