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Here at Triple Dog Dare Media we get a lot of calls and emails from marketers trying to get more out of their web sites. In a sense, they have a mandate to squeeze out every single drop of competitive advantage they can from their online activities.

A lot of folks come in the door fixated on a certain approach (SEO, SEM, lead generation, word of mouth, social networking, etc) while others come to us with a lot of initial research figured out and are open to tactical or operational implementation. Just about everyone is trying to figure out where we play and how we fit in with the whole puzzle known as interactive marketing.

Because we get asked what our general marketing philosophy is, I decided to put together this page. With any luck, it’ll answer your questions. If not, it can at least serve as a starting point for a good conversation.

First of all, we believe that marketing is any activity that will raise awareness or drive sales. At the end of the day, you have to understand your audience, craft a memorable message, deliver that message, track results, and improve your situation. Without this circle of life, any marketing outreach program (online or offline) will stagnate.

Unlike other agencies, we do not start with the media and delivery, we start with audience. If we know something about your audience, then we can craft good messaging and make good media choices. For example, if your audience is Generation Y extreme sports players, then we’re not even going to talk about reaching them with TV and radio–better to craft a podcast series or offer them a cool IM support line for your products. We have many ways of figuring out who the audience is and what they care about, from interviews to surveys to market research to anecdotal evidence and even anthropological observation.

Second in line is the messaging. Regardless of your ultimate approach, without good messaging, you’ve got nothing. Good messaging can drive great content, and great content is what gets the ball rolling.

• If you’re into SEO, a terrific series of blog postings will be linked to from other blogs, therefore driving up your search engine popularity.
• Having great downloadable content in the form of case studies, special reports, and tip sheets can anchor lead generation programs.
• Creative, fun, zany, memorable video and/or audio can drive viral marketing campaigns.

Furthermore, attaching your messaging to a bigger cause (such as world peace, cancer, or anything at all) or just connecting the dots for folks will make it easier to spread the word. Think about the recent pet food scare or any other high profile issue. Pet food manufacturers who could assure the public that their products were safe and that they genuinely cared benefited. Other companies didn’t benefit quite as much. (This is not to say that those other companies don’t really care about our pets, but it sure seems that way. Perception is often more powerful than the truth.) The easier it is to spread the word, the further it will spread, and the better off you are! Whether this happens through PR or word of mouth/referral traffic, doesn’t matter–as long as it happens. Simple enough, right?

In terms of media, we’re all for diversity. A smart integrated approach will get you a lot further than just sticking to one channel. The days when you could pay for a big magazine ad spread or a TV ad campaign are long gone. The world is just too segmented and tucked away in our ipod-listening, Youtube-watching, IM-ing niches.

For any given industry, there can be dozens or even hundreds of viable media channels for delivering the message to your target market. Our job is to help you pick the ones that will work well together to achieve your goals. For example, you might want to drop a postcard that drives prospects to a web site so they can watch a video. When they register, they get an email that invites them to view a longer one-on-one demo at your company. Because your product is linked to a bigger cause (such as women’s health or kid’s safety, for example) you are able to easily latch on to that bigger discussion and offer “share with a friend” links to drive referral traffic. You might also get picked up by the mainstream or blogging media because you’ve made the connection to the bigger issue.

At the end of the day, ideas alone won’t carry you through, so we pride ourselves in not only being able to give you great ideas but to operationalize them. We specialize in building dynamic, updateable web sites, optimized landing pages, and hard-hitting microsites that deliver a focused marketing message. This ability to actually create and produce what you need is our big differentiator. If we provide you with an idea in a meeting, rest assured that we can actually fulfill it.

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