As much as we would all love for our digital marketing strategy to be a ‘set it and forget it’ part of doing business, it’s something that needs to be routinely checked and updated with the latest trends, data and tools in mind.
While your strategy may differ depending on the nature of your business and your campaign scheduling, quarterly check-ups are a good rule of thumb.
They provide you with regular opportunities review what has succeeded and what needs improvement in order to enhance your digital presence and meet your business goals.
What’s working – and what’s not
By taking an in-depth look at the numbers on your various social media channels and website, you can see which elements of your strategy have helped you meet your goals and which areas need more attention.
For example, which images on your Instagram receive the most interactions? Did your video strategy gain you more followers?
Because the digital world is always changing, the chances are that if something isn’t working the way you thought it would, someone has created a more effective way to communicate using fresh tools, features, or even a new app.
By staying on top of technology and adapting your digital marketing strategy accordingly, you may find your success rate improving.
Learn from data
Staying with analytics, remember that there’s so much data available at your fingertips – and it can all be accessed for free using platforms like Google Analytics or Bitly.
These easy-to-read charts and graphs will let you know how people are finding you, what they’re clicking on and how long they’re staying. Check these numbers at least quarterly, observe the trends, and brainstorm ideas on how to improve.
Stay organised
The advantage of digital marketing is ‘agility’ – that is, the ability to change direction quickly.
If something isn’t working, don’t let it run unchecked. Work can pile up, but if you have an established, routinely scheduled digital marketing review on the calendar, it will be easier to follow through on fixes and monitor your progress.
Achieve long-term goals
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Long-term goals are important but thinking about the big picture can be intimidating.
Breaking up your digital marketing goals into quarterly chunks increases your chances of hitting the finish line on time.
Test new solutions
No business is perfect; no matter how well you’re doing, there’s bound to be at least a few elements of your digital marketing strategy that aren’t performing as well as you may have predicted.
When this happens, it’s time to try a new direction. Keep testing different variables: keywords, content type, schedule and advertisements.
It’s all about trial and error, but you need a regular review process to spot the errors and adjust.
How do you review?
What did you have in mind when creating your marketing strategy? Ideally, you took your vision for 2021 and narrowed it down into a list of SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
You can apply the same framework when you reassess and rewrite your goals for the next quarter:
Specific – Ask yourself what exactly you hope to get out of your marketing. Do you want more website traffic? An increase your social following? Higher sales? Get specific. How much of an increase do you want to see?
Measurable – For your goals to be successful, you need to be able to measure them against some benchmark.
For example, higher website traffic could be measured using Google Analytics to determine how many visitors were clicking onto the site before the campaign, and how many were afterwards.
Achievable – Make sure your goals are reasonable and don’t set the bar too high. To expect a dramatic change immediately is not realistic. Consider the time and resources you can dedicate to your marketing strategy, as well as the industry you’re in, when determining how achievable your goals are.
Relevant – Having a social media account, blog or newsletter just to have one is not doing your business any favours. Define how these content platforms will improve your business and benefit your customers.
Timely – Quarterly goals enable you to track progress regularly and stay motivated.
It’s crucial to understand what worked in the last quarter and what didn’t. Take a hard look at your failures, too.
Falling short or completely missing your goal is a hard to swallow but evaluating what went wrong can help you avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
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