The Question: “So, what if I want to specialize in some aspect of Digital Marketing like Pinterest Marketing or SEO. Do I really need to understand Digital Marketing as a whole industry? We’re always told to niche down, not to be a generalist.”
Yes and no.
You need a niche. You just do. And if you have multiple passions, then you’ll use multiple niche sites or funnels and just manage them all! The problem is not having multiple interests. The problem is when you try to combine them all into one site/funnel/sequence etc.
“Hi I’m a Digital Marketer who loves health supplementals and Persian cats.” 🙄
I am a generalist in most areas and an expert in a few.
But I will tell you this — the more you understand the WHOLE industry from a birds-eye view, the more effective you will be as a specialist.
If your speciality is SEO, it doesn’t hurt to understand the social media impact on SERP or how some techy WordPress plugins or themes might impact site speed and thus your ranking. You don’t have to KNOW how to do it all, but the more context you have the better.
If you want to specialize in Pinterest marketing, great! But your Pinterest campaigns will be FAR FAR more effective if you also know how to optimize the blog content the pin is running to, with content upgrades that lead into a sales funnel.
If you want to specialize in Facebook Ads, sales funnels will be your bread and butter since all ads are only as good as the funnel they lead into.
If you want to specialize in list building techniques and launching, that means understanding the basics of design and copywriting and email marketing rules and strategies.
You see…the BIG picture makes each detail more meaningful, more powerful, and more effective.
And there’s a second benefit as well…
When you understand the WHOLE picture, the frantic quest to learn “all the tools” goes away. Because many people who try to learn all the tools, are really trying to learn the big picture through a tool. The skills and practice with a tool become SO MUCH more efficient and productive because it makes sense in the big picture of why you’re doing what you’re doing.
And not only that, the next trick is understanding how the big picture theory WORKS in the real world. With people who have no budget. Or people who have a disaster of a business that needs an overhaul.
Rarely are you starting right at zero with a fresh clean slate. That’s for textbooks.
In developing The Digital Gangsta, I’ve specifically created three business prototypes to use throughout the curriculum. These three business owners are the classic examples I see in the real world:
- No business and on a budget
- A business but a lot of disorganization
- The business that wants to scale
Understanding how to implement Digital Marketing Strategies that WORK for each scenario is what separates the good from the best.
Mike says
very useful
thanks for sharing that
jeff thomson says
The online digital marketing is the most trending niche nowadays.
Mac Bryan says
The online digital marketing is world of knowledge and technology the more you learn the more you get new strategies