Digital Marketing from a Sales Guy

Digital Marketing, a sales view. The last six months I have been working on digital marketing. This is my first such experience of thinking like a marketer and selling solutions to a marketing professional. Just a few months ago I was debating on a post for Sales Vs marketing. Irony that I get to experience the debate. The realty of Sales is my salary and the realty of marketing is that I will get my salary. I don't think that there can be a better definition then that. This role has certainly led to respect marketing challenges a lot more than my past. In the last few months I have been working on various aspects of digital marketing, studying different sites, medias, mediums in the digital space to find the perfect solution for my customers. While the gamut of what one can offer is limited the scope for creativity is enormous. You almost begin living in a story telling world from creating those concepts which will attract the next 100k people on your website to creating that virtual experience that's better than real or close to real. Digital Marketing is an evolving field with a promise to reduce marketing spends and get more predictable and accurate results for every rupee one puts in it. What do I see in this crowded place is too many specialist with no real credibility. A lot that is seen on the internet is make believe and not real. Reviews are monitored and mostly controlled. Authenticity, trust & standardization will be the future. A lot of marketers have already started demanding performance based pricing, no learning on my cost. To their credit they have been getting results at much faster and better rates. For some they are still reeling between performance and variable pricing and are able to get creative. Like all solutions currently this space lacks someone like an Oracle, SAP, etc. To lead and define the industry practices. Also, since this is very similar to any IT service you would take the pricing is very similar to what you see in consulting & system integration. I spend x and I need y so the price is x+y. Is this the best pricing out there for such services? I particularly like the idea of a combination of performance and setup based pricing where there is a definite arrogance (arrogance in a positive way) with what I believe in my service and I am willing to bet on it. Nothing is left to chance. It is a win win for the customer as well as he can appreciate the effort and the small investment can keep the partner motivated.