The only thing worse than an uninformed online marketing campaign is a misguided online marketing campaign. It’s way too easy as a business to get caught up in the wrong objectives and end up way too far down the wrong path before you even realise that something is wrong. So for today’s blog we figured that it would be good to try to explain a few of the common pitfalls to you when it comes to a) what you can achieve and b) what you should be trying to achieve.

So let’s go!

Assessing Business Objectives

Let’s be clear here. When we say business objectives, we mean what you hope to achieve for your business with regards to online marketing in a very real and informed sense. “More sales” is not an objective. Neither is “an increase in revenue”. You need to look at what is actually possible within the platforms you’re considering. Trust us, we’re not trying to temper your expectations here, there is a very real problem in our industry with digital marketing projects that aren’t even aiming for outcomes that are actually possible because no research was done to this effect in the beginning. Know your platform and what it can do or engage someone who can do this for you so that you can set realistic goals.

Assessing Budget

Anyone you talk to about digital marketing budgets is going to give you a “how long is a piece of string?” type of response. But they’re not actually incorrect. There are so many variables and in some cases so many products and services that asking a question that simple is honestly a bit nonsensical. However with that said, it’s absolutely untrue if an agency tries to tell you that it’s impossible to give you a ballpark quote with regards to what your spend should be in a digital marketing sense. Take the time to understand as much as you can personally and where that can’t happen, engage a professional to help you understand what is actually going on so that you can make great decisions.

Researching Platforms

Just because you can be everywhere, doesn’t mean that you should be. It all comes down to the products, services and company image that you’re selling along with the possibilities of the platforms you’re looking to push those things on. Different kinds of retail items sell differently between Facebook and Google Ads and services can be affected either positively or negatively depending on the review they get on these platforms. Figure out which platform is best for you and decide how to assign your budget and time/efforts accordingly. Then review regularly to ensure that you’re not only maximising time in the “field”, but getting every little thing that you can out of the experience. There’s a lot of value to be had/learned here. Be sure to take advantage of it!

Researching Providers

If you’re looking to engage a professional (be it in-house or externally through an agency), we would hope that it’s obvious by now that you definitely need to do your research here. Online Marketing in Brisbane is now overflowing with various offerings promising you the world and all claiming to be the “next big thing” in marketing methodology. The truth is that it’s not that hard to understand what various platforms want and it’s definitely not as complicated as some would have you believe to have at least a few small gains in the short term, so that’s the conversation that you should be having to begin with, followed by what the long term plan would look like. Talk in broad strokes about where you’d like to be 6 and 12 and 24 months from now and which avenues might help you to achieve those goals.

Setting Up Tracking

Let’s be blunt. What’s the point of any online marketing at all if you’re not tracking your progress? I mean it’s easy enough to get the general gist of things, but you’d be surprised how often that “general gist” is completely out of step with reality when it’s compared to the actual data on what’s happening. Install tracking. Understand it in as much detail as possible. Incorporate your personal data interests (the stuff you’d like reporting on) into what gets installed. Make informed decisions. Which leads us to the next section.

Having A Review Process

We’re willing to bet that the average person reading this blog has no real idea just how many serious fortune 500 companies could read it and identify serious problems with their process. A lack of review process and time dedicated to it is one of the biggest points of disappointment we see with clients. Not for personal or procedural reasons, but when you’re heavily engaged in online marketing, why on Earth would you not try to make real-time data available to everyone that matters in real time and look it over on a regular basis as a team? Good web marketing is the consistent art of fine tuning and incremental improvements. Without review, you’re missing the biggest piece.

And that’s it for another blog! As always, if you’d like us to elaborate on anything we’ve spoken about regarding Brisbane Online Marketing today or just want to leave us a comment then please look below! We’re happy to answer any and all Digital Marketing Questions.