You created a digital marketing strategy, you set up your social media channels and you even wrote up a weekly publishing calendar which you’re sticking to – sort of. With all this in place, you thought you’d be on the upswing but that’s not how it’s turned out and now you’re flummoxed about why?
The absolute truth is that for digital marketing to be effective it requires time – time to execute and time to gain traction. Yes, time is something most business owners struggle to manage BUT if digital marketing is a part of your overall marketing strategy then you had better make the time to do it well.
To make your digital marketing work you need time to…
- Write communications that resonate and are valuable to the people you’re in business for. It’s about them not you!
- Photograph or source images that are captivating and strike an emotional chord of the people you’re in business for.
- Understand the hearts and minds of the people you’re in business for so you can, more easily, roll out 1 & 2.
- Don’t try to be everywhere. Save time by choosing the most appropriate channels (some of which will require some $) to communicate your brand story, products or services.
- Like, share and converse with your social community (online networking).
- Ensure what you’re publishing on your website is ‘search engine friendly’.
- Measure, analyse and improve your digital marketing efforts, especially the paid campaigns.
There’s no getting around it. For your digital marketing to connect with your ‘true’ customers and lead them to enquire or buy, you need to invest time. But time is money so crunch the numbers and work out if it’s cheaper for you to do it or for you to pay someone to do it for you. Either way, just keep doing it as the list above suggests and trust that, a little way down the track (6-12 months) it will pay off – which it will.
Image by Paul Dufour
