In my 3rd year of working at Dogwood, I have learned so much about digital marketing. Some of what I’ve learned is what I expected but a lot is not! I believe many business owners may have made digital marketing assumptions like me. Let’s dive into 5 digital marketing assumptions and what the reality is!
Digital Marketing Assumptions #1
If I just post on social media, then my followers and engagement will grow.
Digital Marketing Reality
Yes, sharing content on social media platforms is a must, but sadly that does not always equal growth in followers and engagement. What you share and when you share it are very influential with social media metrics! Our digital media specialists are constantly looking at what types of posts perform best for our clients. (Are videos very popular? Do they prefer a photo with long text? A photo with short text? A link to our blog? etc) Once we can see what our audience prefers then it is much easier to create content around that. We also look at what time of day (or night) that the majority of our audience is active and schedule our posts for those times. This enables the most eyes to see your content as possible.
Digital Marketing Assumptions #2
Once you build a good website, there is no reason to update anything about it.
Digital Marketing Reality
Having a good working website is crucial, but it is just as crucial to keep it up to date. Changing up photography, creating new content, and blogging are all ways to keep your site feeling fresh to your visitors. Technology has advanced so much so fast it is also very important to make sure your website is optimized for mobile devices. As hosting sites make improvements there are often updates that need to be run on the back end of your site to keep it running smoothly. To learn more about updating your website, check out our blog 3 Elements Every Modern Business Website Needs.
Making periodic updates to your site is also important for SEO (search engine optimization). Search engines like to know that you are taking care of your website by making occasional changes and updates. This is one of the reasons we recommend blog writing to our clients.
Digital Marketing Assumptions #3
Digital ads are difficult to do and I can’t limit my audience.
Digital Marketing Reality
Digital ads such as Google ads or social media sponsored posts do not have to be hard. Yes, it may be intimidating to get started but once you begin the platforms provide a lot of help. Targeting your audience is huge and both social media and search engines have ways to make sure the people that you want to reach are the ones seeing your ad. You can choose demographics based on almost anything- location, age, gender, religion, political views, even audiences that are very similar to the audience that already follows and engages with your content.
Digital Marketing Assumptions #4
Running digital ads is very expensive and may not have much return.
Digital Marketing Reality
You can set your budget for what you would like to spend. Whether it is $5 boosting a Facebook ad or $500 in targeted Google ads, you are the deciding factor in how much you spend. Limits can be set ahead of time to ensure that you never go over budget. This money can be spread out over time or based on how many clicks your ads. When set up correctly and with strong targeting, digital ads often see great returns!
Digital Marketing Assumptions #5
Email marketing is not that important anymore and I don’t need to put work into growing my subscriber list.
Digital Marketing Reality
Email marketing is still alive and well and very successful. Email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 4,200% ROI, making it one of the most effective options available. (Source: Hubspot) It is worth putting time and effort into growing your email database and then crafting good email content for your subscribers. For more valuable information on email marketing check out our blog post The What, Why, and How of Email Marketing.
Let me end with one of the most untrue digital marketing assumptions: I don’t need help with my digital marketing. Maybe you don’t need help and can in fact do it all by yourself. If so, that is wonderful, but the truth is most business owners can’t. If they focus their efforts on digital marketing then other areas of their business hurt. Dogwood can help. Let’s start a conversation and find what area of digital marketing would help your business the most.
