Every business needs a digital marketing strategy, but the investment in time and money doesn’t always have the intended ROI. If you’re going to progress a programme of digital marketing in Essex, make sure you get it right and avoid making these five basic mistakes.
1. Not creating a strategy with goals
If you don’t have a strategy, you immediately move into tactics – and these will never achieve your overall goals. As well as setting a clear strategy with objectives, ensure you also create some clear targets and measures so that you can assess the results of your work. Ensure your stakeholders have agreed on these before you begin your programme of work.
2. Not becoming familiar with analytics
Without ongoing and thorough use of analytics, it will be impossible to keep adjusting your campaign and get the most from it. Reviewing analytics at the end of your campaign isn’t enough; you must be prepared and ready to analyse them each day and to interpret them to adjust your campaigns. All back end commercial systems provide a wealth of analytics in real time and the challenge comes in reading and understanding them.
3. Not testing
Similarly, all digital activity must be subject to rigorous user and system testing before it goes live. It is easy to make mistakes in your campaign set-up that aren’t easily apparent. Spend time testing your efforts before you set your activity live and you’ll see far better results.
4. Chasing trends
There are trends in digital marketing as there are in any field. But chasing trends will take you away from your goals and mean that you fail to achieve meaningful results. It’s important to know trends and to be up to date for the best results from your digital marketing partner in Essex and elsewhere, but remember that trends are a way to deliver innovative tactics, and treat them accordingly.
5. Expecting instant results
Digital marketing activity might be quick to set up, but it takes time to get right and to see results. Add a realistic quarterly timeline and expect your results to come slowly over time in the same way that you do with other types of offline marketing activity. This is particularly important with activities such as SEO, which take time and effort to build. Don’t change your strategy frequently, give it some time to show results.
Getting the best from Digital Marketing in Essex
In short, although digital marketing is vital for businesses, it is never a quick fix and it’s often misunderstood. By treating it in the same way that you would all offline activity – with the same degree of planning and resourcing – you can see great results over time. Start small and with the basics, measure the results of what you do and keep refining your campaigns over time. It is also extremely valuable to work with a digital marketing agency to ensure that your investment is optimised and to access the right level of skilled help and support.
To secure the skills and support that you need to get the most from your digital marketing, why not contact us today for an informal chat about your needs and to learn how we can help.