Many businesses have totally unrealistic expectations in terms of what can be achieved with digital marketing. This might mean that they think they can see instant overnight success with little or no effort required on their part, or it might be that they perceive that digital marketing can solve all of their business problems in one go.
It’s certainly true that digital marketing can do a great deal for your business, but it’s also important to realize that it’s not a magic bullet and that achieving success will require consistent action over the long term.
Here’s how to establish realistic digital marketing expectations and ultimately set yourself up for digital marketing success…
Think long-term
The first thing to say is that digital marketing should be viewed as a long-term strategy. It is simply unrealistic to expect that you can launch a new digital marketing campaign or action and see instant overnight success from your efforts.
Digital marketing requires consistent, sustained action, and that’s something that is really applicable to all forms of digital marketing – whether it’s SEO, social media marketing, email marketing or anything else.
Invest in digital marketing
It is important to realize that digital marketing requires investment. Setting up a high-quality website will cost money. Launching a Google AdWords campaign will cost money. In addition, you’ll either need to manage these things in-house, or you will need to outsource them to an external agency or freelancer.
This isn’t to say that you should blindly throw money into digital marketing and hope for the best. It is important to establish a clear budget for all aspects of digital marketing and ensure that this is tracked closely over time. Ultimately, the end goal is to receive a positive return on your investment, and that’s something that should be very achievable with consistent and focused action.
Prioritize education and communication
Poor education and communication is often to blame for people’s unrealistic expectations. Many staff members will have little or no experience of digital marketing, so it is important to educate them and ensure that they always have realistic expectations of what’s possible and how long it will take to achieve.
Set achievable short-term goals
We mentioned earlier that digital marketing requires a long-term approach, but at the same time it’s also important to set realistic and achievable short-term goals to help you along the way. This will help to enable you to create a culture of success and ensure that nobody in the company feels overwhelmed.
