About Host Digital
Hey, I’m Alan. On this page you’ll find my a little more about me and a manifesto.
About Host
Hey, I’m Alan. On this page you’ll find my manifesto and a little more about me.
HOW I GOT HERE
2006 – start working in a London marketing agency. Overwhelm.
2009 – join another London marketing agency. Generalist 360° digital marketer.
2013 – start specialising in website conversion rate optimisation.
2014 – marriage, 3-month honeymoon, general hiatus.
2015 – start Host Digital, a digital marketing consultancy.
2018 – have a baby girl.
2020 – have a baby boy.
2020 – Airbyte launches, open-sourcing the movement of data
2020 – GA4 comes out of beta, moving event-driven web analytics into the mainstream
2022 – Dataform (framework for managing SQL based data operations) is integrated as a part of BigQuery
When I started in digital marketing:
- Google had just bought a company called “Urchin” which they relaunched as “Google Analytics”.
- Mobile internet was entirely text-based (a “baby internet”).
- The average cost per click on Adwords (now Google Ads) was $0.32.
- Search engine optimisation was entirely gameable (e.g. buying links from link directories was a thing!).
That was the wild west. I spent half my time just keeping up with the pace of change.
Fast forward to today, and the masochistic side of me still does.
But what I have come to appreciate is that – despite the algorithms and machine-learning and bid types and tools and automations and growth hacks – there is one constant that trumps the spectacular pace of change.
That one constant is us.
At the other end of that Facebook Ad, that Google search result, that inbox, that website button click – is a person.
Host Digital leverages your assets to help you to understand that person. Assets like your customer data, your website data and your email list – that give you an unfair advantage.
These assets are as old as the internet itself. Hard-coded into the world wide web. They also happen to be assets that you OWN, which means less hustling with Goobook Marketing (that’s a portmanteau for Google and Facebook!).
1st Party Marketing means using assets you own (i.e. your data, your website, your email list) to maximize revenue per visitor.
With First Party Marketing:
✔ Differentiate with your OWN assets and platforms; stop relying on the shark-infested waters of Google and Facebook.
✔ Convert visitors into customers without having to spend a penny more on advertising.
✔ Ascend new customers into repeat buyers to maximize lifetime value.
1st Party Marketing
The 1st party marketer endeavours not to over-index on 3rd party data.
You recognise that Goobook Marketing is a necessity… but your long-term play is reducing your reliance on these platforms – or at least to integrate 1st party data to increase revenues from them. You lean into assets that you control: your data, your website and email marketing.
1st Party Marketing is the antithesis to 3rd party marketing.
| 3rd Party Marketing | 1st Party Marketing |
|---|---|
| 80% of marketing budget/resource on generating web traffic. | 80% of marketing budget/resource on maximising revenue per visitor. |
| Focus on search engine optimisation; the “content treadmill”. | Creating a high-converting website; create it once. |
| Paid traffic (e.g. Google Ads and Facebook Ads); spend money on ads. | Email marketing; reach subscribers for (nearly) free. |
| Paid traffic; playing on a level playing field with your competition. | Paid traffic; win the auction-environment by integrating your own data. |
| Focus on tools (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.). | Focus on persuasion – direct response copywriting and funnels. |
| Success comes from out-hustling the competition. | Success comes from the assets you own (competition is irrelevant). |
| Reactive mentality based on algorithm updates and competitor activity. | Proactive mentality sets up marketing systems that last indefinitely. |
| Donating to the Trillion Dollar Club. | Investing in your business assets . |
| Rented platforms. | Owned platforms. |
