Firms can learn from Trump’s digital marketing ‘masterclass’

A digital marketing expert at Purpose Media believes companies can learn from the online campaign that helped get Donald Trump elected US president.

Tim Lenton, digital innovation and strategy director at the Derbyshire firm, said putting politics and personality aside, Trump’s team delivered a highly effective campaign that understood and reflected his audience’s core values and led from the forefront of digital political strategy.

The controversial Republican frontman defied the polls as he brushed away the challenge of Democrat Kamala Harris to sweep into the White House for a second term.

Tim believes that while Trump’s campaign was often tempered, foul-mouthed and mired in controversy – and even saw him survive an assassination attempt – the headline often obscured the hard work that was taking place away from the headlines.

He said: “Regardless of where you stand on Donald Trump and his politics, his digital campaign was nevertheless a masterclass in online electioneering and there is a wealth of lessons that companies and marketers can learn from.

“From segmenting his audiences to choosing the right content for the right digital platform, his team showed they knew their audience deeply and the kind of messages that they would be open to while they also invested heavily in data analysis to ensure their ads were targeted and personalised.

“Their campaign was at the forefront of digital political strategy and although not everyone was happy with the result of the election, of course, it does show what’s possible online, even for companies which might have a limited budget.”