5 Marketing Expectations To Realign for your 2020 Digital Marketing Strategy

With the current digital climate and ever-changing landscape, it's important to remain at the forefront of your customers' minds. We have listed 5 top-of-mind ways to align your expectations so that you can successfully remain in that coveted position.

1. Expectation: More website traffic equals more conversions.

Reality: While more traffic to your site may result in more conversions, that doesn’t always lead to increased sales or success. As each lead is nurtured through the sales funnel, your visitors should always be encouraged to take the next actionable step – whether that’s watching a video, filling out a contact form, or subscribing to a newsletter.

Often, people think of digital marketing as immediate pay off and that, after responding to a campaign, the visitor will become your next brand evangelist. Just like buying a new mattress, your customer may have to sleep on it a few months to realize it’s a good fit. Educational content and follow up communications play a large role in staying relevant and positioning yourself in front of your prospects. In the end, your ultimate goal is to nurture each lead into becoming a customer. Once a customer, moving them towards becoming a supporter of your brand.

Schedule a Consultation

Expectation: More followers and “likes” equals more business.

Reality: The number of social media followers or website traffic is not directly proportional to the number of conversions you’ll see. Numbers are important to build a noticeable following, but without engaging content, it will be difficult to retain individuals who take action. As the saying goes, “Content is king”, not your number of followers.

3. Expectation: You have to spend money to make money!

Reality: While it is true that running online campaigns will likely generate more sales, it isn’t the only way, you can also focus on your website and its organic rank. SEO is more than just keywords and Google is constantly updating their algorithms to include multiple factors like:

• Mobile-friendly and responsive
• Security and accessibility
• High-quality content
• Page speed
• Domain age and URL

Again, PPC campaigns are widely used and should be considered in marketing strategy but SEO plays a large role in how you’re found online. 

4. Expectation: A Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter presence is a complete digital marketing strategy.

Reality: Different social platforms will provide different results. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to social media platforms. For example, home builders often rely heavily on stunning pictures and videos to influence their target audience, so Twitter might not play a large role in this particular strategy. If specializing in B2B sales, the go-to platform would likely be LinkedIn to best position yourself to the already engaging business audience.

5. Expectation: Start any campaign and you’ll see results! 

Reality: There are many questions to ask yourself before launching a campaign. Here are just a few:

• What are your objectives and do you have a defined audience or prospective buyer?
• Your strategy won’t be clear without defined expectations. Think about how your content could answer some of your commonly asked questions.
• Which platform would this content be suitable for? Facebook, Google, Email?
• Long-form content can be published as a blog while news and updates may be best positioned in an email or on social media. 
• How are you going to repurpose this content to get the most out of it?
• Repurposing your content will ensure you’ve stretched your time as far as it will go with the piece of content you’ve created. Posting on social, compiling an eBook, and sending emails are just a few examples.
• Should you run an A/B test to find the best way to deliver your message?
• A/B testing brings methodology to your marketing and lets the public make the decision for you on how they prefer to take actionable steps. 

A successful digital marketing strategy requires short- and long-term planning; it takes time to see results. SEO and digital marketing as a whole are both art and science. Together, with a structured and well thought out plan, your business can shine and land the customers you’re targeting.

If you’re interested in upping your digital marketing game, email us, call Michelle at 713.818.0070, or fill out a contact us form and we will call you.