You Need a Defined Digital Marketing Plan
The internet offers seemingly limitless possibilities for marketing and contacting potential consumers. A company in any part of the country can connect with customers and clients all over the world. With smartphones and social media, people spend more time on the internet than ever before. Gone are the days when it was a fringe interest; it’s so mainstream that it takes over many areas of our lives. This saturation offers new ways to connect with people and new channels to guide them to your goods and services.
It’s important to remember that the wide-open nature of the internet is not something you want to replicate in your digital marketing plan. It needs to be focused. It needs to be well-defined. You need to understand your target audience. Without taking these steps, the potential of the internet is wasted. Remember that with a massive potential audience comes the chance of putting your material before millions of people who do not care and will not make a purchase. That’s wasted time, wasted money and wasted energy. Don’t just assume that the potential of the internet makes it a terrific tool for marketing with little input on your end. Doing it correctly is the key. Interestingly, many companies fail to do so.
Running with No Plan
First of all, consider the fact that Forbes reported on a Smart Insights study that 40% of companies have never really defined the strategy they plan to use for digital marketing. This doesn’t mean they don’t do it. They just don’t have set goals and clear steps to take to attempt to meet those goals. Most companies have websites, social media profiles and online ads. The issue is that they did not define what tactics they wanted to use.
This could show that people are still looking at the internet as something that offers easy, endless possibilities. When it was first growing, there was the thought that just getting online would set your company apart and help you make sales. That’s no longer the case now that everyone is online and competition is stiff, but four out of 10 companies are still acting like nothing has changed.
Wasting billions
What is the impact of not having a defined plan? It means that a lot of online marketing simply does not find its intended target. Companies produce content that should be effective but is not because they don’t get it in front of the right users. People are desensitized to online marketing and the best results come from those who fit a profile and already have an interest in the goods and services in question. When ads go to the wrong people, they fail to make conversions and waste their potential. Again, it’s important to note that simply getting content online is not enough. It has to be the right content, for the right audience.
Because companies fail to do this, one CNBC report claimed that they wasted “billions of online marketing dollars.” This was true on computers, mobile devices and everything else. Companies were generally doing “well” if they could get it right half of the time. Many fell short of that mark.
Defining Your Plan
Do you feel like your online efforts haven’t paid off? Maybe you use social media but you’ve never really focused on a specific audience. Maybe you run ads but you’ve never defined what group you want to target. As you can see from these reports, defining that plan is critical and you must work with experts who can guide you to success in this competitive arena. That’s where we come in. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us today to find out how working with digital marketing experts is a game-changer that can save money, get results and create sales.