When It’s Time to Shake Your Digital Marketing Up

“We’re doing fine.” 

“We’re bringing people in.” 

“Sales are all right.” 

If you’ve found yourself saying any of those or similar phrases, you may think that your digital marketing is succeeding. 

After all, it’s specifically not failing. You haven’t “bottomed out,” nor have you lost money. You’re plugging along. 

In the past, before I came to work for Website Depot, there was a fun analogy on our site comparing online marketing to the engine of a car. The idea was something like “running a business without proper online marketing is like driving a car without an engine.” 

In our modern era, most companies now have some form of online marketing, they have a website, social media, and more. 

Today, to continue the analogy, the challenge is not “driving a car without an engine” but rather “being content with a car that merely gets from one place to another.” 

Even if your online marketing is doing “OK,” there’s so much more that you can do. 

Getting the Most from Your Marketing 

Many of our clients came to us when they were just starting their businesses. Others did so when their business had reached some kind of impasse; they had tried other marketing groups and been unsuccessful, etc. 

One thing we’ve found when we talk to clients is that they often are surprised as to what are successful engagement numbers. For example, according to studies, the average email open rate is not quite 23%. 

Some companies can find that incredibly high. But, the truth is, that’s the average. If you aren’t getting that high or somewhere near it on a fairly regular basis, the truth is you should make a change. 

Now, obviously, so much goes into email marketing. Just like everything else, it all works in tandem: responsive web design, SEO, online reputation management, and so forth. They all feed and contribute to each other. 

But, if you’re willing to “settle” for your marketing, then you’re “settling” for your growth, too. To keep going with that car analogy, you’re saying that’s OK your car squeals when you hit the brakes, it’s OK when the engine sputters, when the paint chips. 

Much of our job is simply showing our clients what their online marketing can be. 

Another Sign It’s Time to Change 

Sometimes, the clearest sign that your marketing should change has nothing to do with your company at all. Instead, they have to do with events, with your customers. 

The obvious example of this, of course, is the pandemic. 

Even if your marketing was doing well, even if it was succeeding, you have to acknowledge it. Most have. Acknowledging frontline workers, educating your customers, highlighting the quality of your products, goods, or services without “selling hard” to your customers – these are all ways that companies have succeeded during this time. 

A lovely example that incorporates all of the above was a recent campaign from Banks Rum. 

This Instagram campaign showed bartenders from literally all across the world, showing cocktails that were “created to honor industry figures that have impacted each bartender’s career.” 

So, in this campaign, regular folks who were out of job got help (the bartenders). Meanwhile, customers (and potential customers) got to see both the product (the rum) as well as learn new cocktails that they could make at home. 

That’s a successful campaign. 

Shifting Gears 

“Just getting by” is important in business. 

That’s especially true now, in these rough times. 

To get up every day and be able to do your job is in and of itself a great victory. 

However, in your desire to keep “plugging along,” you don’t want to cut yourself off from opportunities to do even better. 

To finish the car analogy, you don’t want to drive a clunker for years and years, all the while there was a sports car you could afford. 

(That’s the last car analogy, I swear.) 

We can help you at every step of the process. For more: (888) 477-9540.