The Digital Marketing Quadrant Manifesto

The Digital Marketing Quadrant is the core of our agency.

It is the result of 15 years of digital marketing experience, millions of dollars of client ad spend and thousands of hours of strategic thinking, planning and collaborating.All of those elements have led to its development and, perhaps counterintuitively, it’s simplicity.

Our agency has offered many digital services since we opened our doors in 2004. We started by producing online videos for local businesses. The idea of online video was interesting, but it had not truly caught on with the public yet. In fact, YouTube didn’t launch until 2005. We were ahead of our time (for reference, this is what YouTube looked like when it launched. 2005 was a long time ago!).We continued to make online videos but also started to develop websites and generate email marketing campaigns.

Then we increased our client’s traffic through Search Engine Optimization and, starting back in 2006, began managing AdWords campaigns. Over the next ten years, we aligned ourselves with the Full Service Digital Agency model. It was a good run. We generated hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue for our clients and millions of dollars of revenue for the agency. We developed a great company culture and provided our employees a place to work where work/life balance was actually possible.

But something wasn’t right.

It was time to evolve again.

Why?

Simply put, the full-service agency model doesn’t work today. And single service agencies, like those solely focused on PPC, don’t work very well either unless you find the 1%  that are the true experts in their craft. There are so many digital marketing and advertising possibilities that most agencies can’t only offer one thing. On the other hand, with so many options, it’s nearly impossible to offer them all and do good work. This leads to chaos, erodes client trust and blurs the end goal of both client and agency. These two parties should always be working toward an agreed-upon goal. That goal should be clear and have a completion date attached to it. This is especially important for services like SEO and PPC which continue, month after month, for years.

‍What is our goal? How do we achieve our goal? When will our goal be met?

‍These three questions are answered by IMA’s Digital Marketing Quadrant (the DMQ). The DMQ flips the script on how most digital agencies approach client work. Most agencies pitch one or more of their services based on what the client is interested in or what the client can afford. A proposal is signed, and the monthly campaigns and related charges begin. Every month a report goes out from agency to client, and this continues month after month after month. There might be monthly goals, though even this is rare, but there is no focus on an overall strategic goal for the client. Something that has a tangible effect on the client’s business and is achievable within a specific time frame.

IMA’s DMQ (sorry, we love acronyms in the digital marketing world!) is the solution to this problem that plagues our entire industry.

‍The DMQ starts with a goal and a timeline Where do you want your business to be in twelve month’s time? Maybe you want to generate $X gross revenue, or increase profit by X%, or add a new product or service. IMA listens to your goals and does a deep dive discovery process, something we call IdeaMapping, which creates a structure for your personalized DMQ that is focused on your goal and will be complete in twelve months.

The DMQ is made up of four quadrants:
– Funnel Optimization
– Demand Generation
– Intent Generation
– Retention and Referral

Within each quadrant are multiple services including, but not limited to, the following:
– Paid Search
- Paid Social
– Search Engine Optimization
- YouTube Advertising
- Display Advertising
- Content Marketing
– Email marketing
– Marketing Automation
– Conversion Rate Optimization
– Analytics

During the IdeaMap phase, we dive deep to learn about you and your business. We take those learnings and design your custom Digital Marketing Quadrant. It’s typical at the beginning of our journey to see a single quadrant that is inordinately weighted. In the past, you might have focused on demand generation while ignoring branding (which improves the performance of your demand generation campaigns). In fact, it is not unusual to have an entire quadrant empty when we begin.

But over the course of twelve months, your entire DMQ will spring to life. Each service in each quadrant will be added and/or optimized so that you have a fully functioning Digital Marketing Quadrant that paves the way for your business to achieve its goals.

‍The best part? Once the DMQ is complete, you are the owner of an incredibly powerful digital marketing and advertising engine that can be harnessed to reach your next business goal.

‍Rinse and repeat. Goal after goal, year after year, marching toward the full potential of your business.

If you’d like to get results with your own Digital Marketing Quadrant, introduce yourself and set up a call with our team.
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