Managing your entire digital marketing strategy is not easy. With an ever growing number of software options and services, it becomes very difficult to stay focused. One minute someone is telling you to do email marketing, then social media, and then blogging. Oh and by the way, run a business. Unless you have an endless budget and time, the process is never going to get easier.
The 4 Most Common Mistakes Most Organizations Make
To deal with this overwhelm, I see many leaders making the following mistakes:
- Trying to do everything (social media, email marketing, blogging, etc.), but hiring for the lowest cost (no results)
- Spending their entire budget in one area (e.g. social media)
- Becoming highly reactive (quickly doing what someone tells them to do)
- Spending their own time trying to manage everything
The reason that I would even deem any of these activities as mistakes is that they are lacking key ingredients that actually make an impact to improve an organization. Here are just a few examples:
- Determining the overall business objectives
- Determining Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
- Matching tactics with resources that understand the business objectives and KPI's
- Determining how digital marketing management plays into the organizational chart of the organization
Shifting Focus From "Doing" to "Measuring"
Notice how none of the factors above mention anything about tactics. When you start focusing on tactics it's easy to get caught in the weeds and to lose site of the overall purpose behind anything you do in the digital space. How many times you tweet, blog or send emails isn't going to improve your bottom line. Integrating digital marketing tactics into measurable business processes that support operations will improve your bottom line.
Below are a few examples of integrating digital marketing tactics into measurable business processes. Obviously, these are examples and would need to be modified based on the organization itself.
Faster sales conversions
- Take the top 10% of your email marketing list (people who open and click through the most) and create a separate email segment. From there, plan out a serious of email campaigns with a stronger call-to-action. Then use video email from sales representatives to follow through with the sale.
- Possible Key Performance Indicator (KPI): Lower Cost of Sale (COS), increased Sales Revenue
Improve employee morale and productivity
- Setup a private social platform (e.g. Company HubSite) and assign one person in your company (e.g. Marketing Coordinator) to post a company update at least once per day. Make sure that the update includes employee work performance highlights, company wins, company direction and upcoming company events. Require each department head to share a similar update within their group in the network. Assure the platform is both available for desktop and as a mobile app (for "in the moment" updates)
- Possible Key Performance Indicator (KPI): Increased employee satisfaction rating, less turnover
Increase in quality sales leads
- Assign a dedicated business development person (not social media guru) devoted to not only updating company social networks, but also to simply build relationships with potential clients and referral sources. Activities might entail going to LinkedIn and participating 30% of the time in responding to relevant group activities and 70% of the time connecting with group members. At the end of each week, provide a report to the sales team to follow up on any opportunities.
- Possible Key Performance Indicator (KPI): Increased number of sales leads per month
Take notice of none of these activities really require a "social media guru". Don't get me wrong, social media is a big part of the overall digital landscape, but at the end of the day it needs to apply as a function in your business. It can't be something "extra" you do. It needs to be integrated within the roles of your organization. It needs to be measured.
You're now in control of your digital marketing strategy
Going from the tactical mindset to the strategic mindset is critical for your business to grow. Either that or you will be peddling from software to software and person to person. The first step is to actually have a digital marketing plan. A written document (that will change over time) that details how everything you do leads back to Key Performance Indicators that actually make a difference in your company. Once you have it, you will feel in control and understand where everything fits in. You'll be one step ahead of your competitors as they continue to go from tactic to tactic, social network to social network, software to software.
Let us help you develop your digital marketing plan. We will sit with you to truly understand your business objectives and Key Performance Indicators that make you successful. To setup your free consultation, please click here.