If you were to take everything that web marketers do, they could all fall into two buckets: optimization and promotion.
Optimization
Optimization is the “easy” part. Yeah, good SEO requires a lot of knowledge and skill, but it’s pretty straight forward. It is encompassed largely by (often repeatable) tasks that have a beginning and an end: Keyword research, on-page optimization, architecture fixes, user experience optimization, etc.
Promotion
This is what makes the optimization get noticed. In fact, even the best optimization is dead in the water without promotion. Or as I like to call it: amplification.
That’s really what it is. “Promotion” is too… I don’t know, light. We know what it means, but it barely registers a beat. Web marketing needs more than promotion, it needs amplification!
[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=”@StoneyD”]If SEO is the vehicle for your site’s success, it doesn’t go anywhere without amplification fuel.[/inlinetweet]
What is Marketing Amplification?
Well, it’s a lot of things. But it’s all external. Optimization is internal. It’s changes made to your site. Amplification doesn’t affect your site so much as it affects your audience. It allows people not just to find you but to fall in love with you.
Marketing Amplification is Engagement
But what is amplification in digital marketing, really? It’s engagement. Engagement on social media, engagement in comments, engagement on the phone. It’s going out of your way to connect with your audience.
Amplification is, if nothing else, a lot of hard work. You can’t just promote something. You have to do it with engagement in mind. You have to look for opportunities to touch not just minds but hearts as well.
If optimization gives them something to fall in love with, amplification gives them the reason. If you want to amplify your web marketing… start engaging with your audience.