Digital marketing effectiveness: 5 tips for success
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28-03-2023
Marketing has certainly changed over the years, and more emphasis is being placed on digital marketing budgets than ever before. According to Forbes, digital marketing budgets grew by 15.6% year on year in 2022 – while traditional marketing budgets decreased by 0.7%. Oberlo suggests the digital advertising spend in 2023 will be 13.1% up on 2022. We feel this growth could be even higher, because it’s so difficult these days to account for people’s time drafting social posts and blogs – all of which are digital marketing tasks.
How do you judge digital marketing effectiveness?
It’s often hard to prove the value of digital marketing. If you’re running a pay per click (PPC) or digital advertising campaign, then it becomes much easier. You can see the click rate, what you spend and you should be able to manage conversions. To some extent you can do this with email, too, subject to the tools you’re using. But when it comes to drafting blogs and web content, handling search engine optimisation, managing a Google My Business presence, and posting on social channels these more ‘intangible’ types of marketing are difficult to evaluate – especially when it comes to ROI.
But there will (potentially) be a ROI for every pound and minute spent on this type of marketing, and that return ‘should’ compound over time. The key is focusing on creating consistent high-quality digital marketing material to deliver results – and that means treating digital marketing seriously and not just ‘having a go’ which is likely to be fruitless.
How many times has a company come to us thinking that by creating or refurbishing a website the phone will start ringing? Too many. It won’t happen – unless you’re very lucky. There will be a sea of competitors on search engines. So you do need to budget for digital marketing of your website and business alongside the traditional forms of marketing you undertake.
You would expect e-commerce stores to focus on digital marketing, right? But just because you have a brick and mortar business doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Your website is your shop window, and it needs the same attention.
Digital marketing tips
Let’s be clear. It isn’t vital that you focus on every type of digital marketing channel to generate a ROI. Pick those that are within your capability, are cost-effective to outsource, or work best in your sector. A review of your competitors will help here, so you can see what works for them. If they’re putting 20 LinkedIn posts up a week and getting zero likes, then you can consider that to be ineffective. If they’re advertising on LinkedIn and getting great results, then that targeted approach should work for you too.
Tip 1. Research your audience
For a campaign to be effective you need to know your target audience and how they behave online. What are they searching for? Where are they located? What do they respond to? What do they think of your website? Do they want to see reviews, or see discounts?
You can do some of this by looking at competitors’ activity, as we’ll as speaking to your existing customers and looking at your web analytics. But in reality a brainstorm should give you much of what you need. If you don’t really know your customers, then it’s time you did!
Tip 2. Set digital marketing goals
The main goal you want is profit, but to get to that point you need to benchmark what’s happening now, and then monitor and react to what happens in the future.
Consider the metrics you can and want to measure, and set goals. These could include website traffic, number of leads, positive reviews, business meetings scheduled, cost per lead, number of likes or shares… or even sales.
These are your key performance indicators (KPIs). Trends and patterns can be useful, because (for example) your business may prove to be more seasonal than you’d thought. Ensure you have the capability to manage these metrics, and focus on improving them one at a time. If web visitor numbers are not improving, focus on increasing your traffic. If you get plenty of traffic but are not seeing enquiries or sales, then look at what may be going wrong – such as technology failures, ineffective offers, poor website path to purchase, pricing issues, delivery costs…
Tip 3. Prioritise marketing channels
Based on your goals you will want to improve in certain areas, such as increasing your web traffic. Look at how you can achieve that. There will be plenty of options, such as writing more blog articles, paying for search engine optimisation, refreshing the look of the website, advertising in online directories, running PPC ads, increasing social posts, or paying for social advertising. Don’t do all of this at once. Pick one or two, but remember that the organic approach (SEO, blog posts, social posts) can be a slow burn and paid channels can create a more immediate result.
Tip 4. Write a blog or news page
Web posts such as blogs, articles and news can be one of the most effective forms of content. It’s a place where you can answer search queries t using keywords hat your target audience is typing into Google, as well as showing your knowledge or authority in subject areas. Make content consistent, high-value and aligned with basic rules of SEO. Try and publish something new once a week – or at least on a consistent schedule. Also remember to go back and update old articles, and redate them if necessary. Long-form content tends to outperform shorter content in rankings.
Finally, define your calls to action so that you push readers down the sales funnel – getting them to do what you want them to do, and what they’re comfortable with. This applies to all of your digital marketing channels.
5. Learn from results
You’ve defined your goals, the channels you intend to use and have established your KPIs. Keeping track of your results is key to proving your digital marketing ROI. It highlights what’s working, and what your priorities should be – so you divert budget to the channels that are effective, and stop those that aren’t. This means consistently reviewing your results, and not being afraid to drop channels that are ineffective.
All of these things should form part of your marketing strategy – a document that should evolve. Again, many clients we create strategies for put them in the drawer and forget about them. They need to be reviewed, changed and challenged. It’s where we can be of assistance. If you need help, then contact us.