Cross-posted from the RightSpot Media blog. You can also read it there: Digital marketing is an ecosystem, not a pet store.

Over the past decade, digital marketing has changed a lot. But one thing has stayed fairly consistent: the extent to which people obsess over tactics at the expense of strategy. More specifically: the extent to which people obsess over the latest hot tactic—search, social, email, local, mobile, whatever—and seek related gurus to show them the way.

It’s hard to change people’s orientation to think strategically, to define a plan with measurable objectives, then implement tactics and analyze the results. To help, I’ve been increasingly referring to a more holistic approach to digital marketing as a “digital ecosystem.” I think the analogy is fit. Here’s why.

In an ecosystem, nothing survives and thrives in isolation. Lions can only be king if they can eat smaller mammals that in turn eat vegetation. And that’s a gross oversimplification, as ecological networks are extremely complex (lions, after all, can also be eaten by vultures when they die).

Digital marketing is similarly complex. Search marketing may drive customers to a landing page where they complete an order. But if those customers have been exposed to a display ad in a premium environment, they will be far more likely to convert, thereby driving down your cost of acquisition. And if your website has a high search ranking, because you filled it with great content, your quality score will be higher, and therefore your cost per click (and, again, cost per acquisition) will be lower still.

I could go on, but I think you get the point: too many people pick a pet tactic and obsess over it. But digital marketing isn’t about having lots of pets in cages. It’s about cultivating an ecosystem of tactics united by a common strategy that delivers measurable results.