Imagine this: your colleague tells you about a new opportunity, and as the enterprising individual you are, you are excited to get started on an uncharted business venture. However, you become impatient for your coworker to get back to you with details. Marketing your business may often feel like this, where you’re constantly waiting for a boost in your sales, a jump in your site traffic, or more social followers. What do you do? Should you keep waiting for results, or should you give up on all your marketing efforts and try something else? On one hand, moving on will give you the short-term satisfaction of perceivably progressing forward. However, completely giving up on all your marketing efforts is not the solution either. Here’s why:
Online marketing statistics you can’t ignore
Web marketing encompasses a variety of different pieces that typically include social media marketing, search engine optimization , and pay-per-click advertising. Think of these pieces like cogs on a machine; they all work in tandem to help businesses gain greater online brand visibility. If you need statistics to prove that you should be investing your time and budget in a user-friendly website, better optimized keywords, or a branded social media campaign, then here are some eye-opening digital marketing statistics that show how pivotal it is in today’s digital age.
- 69 percent of businesses use social media marketing to increase their traffic (Social Media Today)
- 78 percent of US Internet users research products and services (B2B Marketing)
- Out of paid search, display, and social advertising, search accounts for 40 percent of direct online sales and 38 percent lead generation (eMarketer)
- 60 percent of consumers feel more positively towards a brand after reading content from it (iMedia Connection)
- B2B companies that blog generate 67 percent more leads than those that don’t. (Social Times)
While these are just a few digital marketing statistics, they highlight current B2B trends and consumer habits on the Web. Failing to fully grasp the staggering impact that online marketing has on businesses could mean the difference between success and failure. So what can you do about it?
Develop an actionable strategy
While no one can definitively say exactly how long it will take for you to see the fruits of your marketing labor, what you can do is to create a strategy that not only makes sense for your industry but is also feasible. For example, if you are a small startup technology support business that is targeting people in the workforce, it doesn’t make sense to focus all of your energy on a social media platform like Pinterest, nor does it make sense to send out your company updates while your target demographic is at work. That’s the fast track to an “Unsubscribe.”
Instead, think about what you are trying to accomplish and who you are trying to reach. By understanding your target audience’s desires and frustrations, you can better determine what they are looking for, which allows you to position yourself in accordance to their needs. However, simply stopping all of your marketing efforts is equivalent to throwing out the time and money you spent on marketing in the first place. Instead of giving up completely, reevaluate your current business strategy; analyze what is working, and fix what is not.
(Re)define how you measure success
What good is a strategy if you don’t have a way to measure success? You need to ask yourself what the end goal is. Is it generating more sales leads, converting leads into customers, or turning customers into brand advocates? Each goal requires a slightly different marketing tactic, so understanding exactly what you want to get out of your digital marketing efforts is necessary in attaining your goal.
Set a short-term and long-term goal that makes sense for your business. For example, your short-term goal could be getting 200 more Facebook fans in six months, but your long-term goal could be increasing your brand awareness and maintaining a positive reputation online. However, clearly defining your goals will help you prioritize and focus your tasks to meet and exceed your goals.
Remember that just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, your business’s online presence won’t flourish overnight either. Be realistic about your goals and be patient about achieving them. As much as you may not want to hear it, it takes an incredible amount of work and a long, steady span of effort to see significant results. However, if you can manage to stay focused and consistent, the results are absolutely worth the effort.