As the owner or C-suite of a mid-sized business, your focus is on a clear path to growth. You build budgets around tangible outcomes and direct your teams toward channels that promise a measurable return. It’s why requests like “We need a powerful e-commerce platform” or “Let’s double down on our LinkedIn presence” become the cornerstones of a marketing plan. They feel focused, controlled, and most importantly, dialed in.
However, they are dangerously incomplete.
As KWSM’s Vice President of Strategy, I see the challenges with the prospective client who has a preconceived notion of the digital marketing pathway to success. I wish my experience and marketing crystal ball would allow me to provide you with the simple pathway to conversion. They can’t. The hard truth is that the most critical conversations that determine your next sale, your next star hire, or your next strategic partnership are happening far beyond the polished walls of your website and social media channels. While you’re perfecting your own storefront, your reputation is being forged in the town square— think review sites, news articles, and in niche online communities you may not even know exist.
Focusing solely on your owned channels is like believing the only thing that matters is the speech you give, while ignoring the audience’s chatter before and after the event. This blind spot isn’t just a missed opportunity; it’s a strategic liability.
Your Brand’s True Voice is External
Regardless of your industry, a digital ecosystem of influence is operating with or without your participation. Your potential customers are not making decisions in a vacuum; they are actively seeking third-party validation.
- For the Software CEO: You’re spending a fortune on development and sales, but your future enterprise client is making their shortlist based on reviews on G2 and Capterra. A single, detailed thread on Reddit from a disgruntled former user can neutralize thousands in ad spend, while a positive analysis from an influential tech blogger can close deals for you. What is your reputation management strategy?
- For the Manufacturing Leader: You believe your relationships are built on the trade show floor. Today, procurement managers and engineers are vetting your company in niche industry forums and through digital trade publications. They are weighing your credibility based on discussions on LinkedIn where your competitors are positioned as thought leaders. What is your pre- and post-show Account-Based Marketing strategy?
- For the Professional Services Firm: Your reputation is your currency. While you broadcast your expertise on your blog, prospective clients are validating your firm on sites like Clutch.co, reading client testimonials, and assessing your partners’ influence. A feature in Forbes or a local business journal often carries more weight than any case study you publish yourself. What is your thought leadership publishing strategy?
Your Website Isn’t The Field of Dreams; It’s the end of a series of corn mazes
There’s a famous line from Field of Dreams that has become dangerous business folklore: “If you build it, they will come.” Many treat their websites with this exact mentality, meticulously polishing the Home page and expecting customers to simply appear. But your website isn’t an open field with one red carpet rolled out over the soil. It’s the small clearing at the end of countless corn mazes—the winding, complex journeys your customers take through review sites, articles, and social media before they ever find you.
The external sites—the review aggregators, the media articles, the community pages—are the pathways leading people to your stadium. And they don’t all lead to the front. They lead to side doors, back doors, and even windows, each offering a direct entry point.
Your prospects are arriving with a specific purpose and context. The experience they find when they walk through that door must honor their journey.
- The software developer who clicked a link in a technical forum thread expects to land on a “door” that opens into a hallway of a software demo or a deep-dive blog post, not your main marketing page.
- The potential hire who read about your company culture on Glassdoor is looking for the “careers” door, expecting to find a rich experience with employee video testimonials and a clear view of your company values.
- The procurement manager who read a press release about your new sustainable manufacturing process needs a door that leads directly to a whitepaper or case study detailing that exact initiative.
If every path leads to the same generic front lobby, you create a jarring and inefficient experience. Having the right doors and the right hallways for people who come through different paths is critical to capturing their interest and guiding them forward.
And that’s just the first step. True fandom isn’t built in a single visit; it’s cultivated over time by bringing people back through email, remarketing ads, and other external pathways until they are passionate about what you do.
There’s More to The Web Than Your Website
Looking at this vast digital ecosystem, the challenge can feel overwhelming. How can you possibly know which doors to build, which hallways to design, and which external pathways to pave?
You don’t have to guess. The modern customer journey is not a straight line; it’s a web, and trying to map it based on assumptions is a fool’s errand. This is why the foundational first step in any robust digital strategy must be to go directly to the source and get the blueprint.
Before we build a plan, we conduct comprehensive Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Client, or Voice of the Employee surveys. We don’t guess what influences key decisions—we ask the pointed questions that reveal the truth. We uncover the podcasts they listen to, the publications they trust, and the communities they turn to for candid advice.
That data is the bedrock of a strategy that builds the right entrances and meets people where they are, building trust on the channels that matter most to them, not just the ones you control.
Before you allocate another dollar based on an assumption, let’s build a strategy based on evidence. Let’s amplify your story on the stages that truly count.
Explore a comprehensive digital marketing strategy with KWSM.
