Since 2007 I’ve been delivering digital marketing training courses and I must say that it was easier to deliver a more comprehensive course when I first started!
Back then, there weren’t nearly as many digital marketing channels – Twitter and YouTube had recently launched and we’re considered as opportunities to reach the mainstream.
As part of my 26-Week Digital Marketing Plan, I incorporated everything within what I called the Phases of Digital Marketing, something I recorded on this video in late 2012.
However, 5 years later I’m not so convinced that it’s now wise to try to incorporate as much as possible into a digital marketing plan. There are just so many digital marketing channels nowadays, it’s important that you select the channels that are best for your business.
So as a digital marketing trainer, how do I deliver an understanding of the digital marketing landscape, without trying to teach people as much as possible about everything?
The answer I think lies in a digital marketing model, rather than a digital marketing framework.
So what’s the difference?
A framework’s prescriptive, while a model can be applied to your own ideas too.
This means that a model can be used to teach certain digital channels and tactics that work now, but it can also be used to encourage future thinking and adding of additional ideas from course attendees in the future.
So what kind of model can be used, on which any digital marketing activity can be applied, now or in the future?
Smart Insights recently published a great article highlighting different options. However, for me, there’s 1 thing that needs to be at the centre of every successful digital marketing campaign: great content.
Does this mean that there’s a content marketing model out there that can be used?
Business West published a great summary of Google’s 3H Hero, Hub and Help content model – and I really like this model.
‘Hero’ content is the type of ‘big’ evergreen content pieces that can be costly, but can deliver big results. ‘Hub’ content tends to be episodic content like bog posts or podcast episodes. Whereas ‘Help’ content answers common user queries.
However, I’d argue that there is something missing – the type of content that describes a product and gets people to buy – commercial content. That, to me, alongside Google’s 3H’s would deliver a comprehensive content marketing model that can be applied at the centre of any bespoke digital marketing framework.
So what do we call this new model? The 3Hs and 1C model?
It doesn’t exactly run off the tongue does it? 🙂
What I probably need is another ‘H’ to represent commercial content, and I’d like to suggest ‘Heart’. The content that is at the heart of what a business does, describing the business’ products and services. I see this ‘Heart’ content sitting at the centre of everything and the other 3 H’s funneling traffic towards the commercial content (not necessarily immediately, but hopefully eventually!).
I present the 4H Content Marketing Model to you! 🙂
What are your thoughts?