Digital Marketing Results 1 of 4: Where Are You On Your Online Marketing Adventure?

You are responsible for your organization’s marketing results, this includes the results you’re getting from your website. If we’re talking about digital marketing specifically, for most companies large or small, results are measured against 2 primary goals:

1. Convert leads into new buying customers

2. Convert current, inactive, or lost customers into repeat customers

If your organization is a nonprofit, these 2 goals can be loosely translated as follows:

1. Convert leads into new buying donors

2. Convert current, inactive, or lost donors into repeat donors

If you’re responsible for your organization’s marketing results, you should know how much traffic your website is getting (and from which devices) and where it’s coming from. You should know how many conversations your co-workers in sales or donor acquisition are having with leads, customers/donors, and repeat customers/donors and how many are converting.

Are you happy with your results? Are you happy with the return on investment that you’re getting from your website and digital marketing initiatives? Most would say they’re not. Many would say they don’t even invest in digital marketing and are upset by the results they’re getting from their website. They feel it was a poor investment. “We did what our website design company recommended and we built a website… Why aren’t customers/donors beating down our door, jamming our phone lines, and filling our inboxes?” they say.

Let’s say for argument’s sake that you’re not part of that organization. You and your organization don’t prescribe to the if-you-build-it-they-will-come mindset. You’ve discussed strategies and plans (you may or may not have formalized them), you’ve launched a website that you’re somewhat happy with design-and-technology-wise, you’ve collected email addresses and tried email direct marketing, you’re playing with social media and content marketing, but there’s no real strategy or plan behind these initiatives, no-one is really taking ownership, you’re a one-man/woman or small team department, and the digital marketing space has blown up.

Digital marketing activities today include:

• search engine optimization (SEO),
• search engine marketing (SEM),
• content marketing,
• influencer marketing,
• content automation, campaign marketing,
• social media marketing,
• email direct marketing,
• display advertising,
• ebooks,
• and any other platforms or digital media.

It also extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as mobile phones (SMS and MMS), etc.

Some of these channels have the power to convert, but you know your website has that power too. You know that in addition to digital marketing, you have to have an understanding of the performance of your website because you know you always should be looking for ways to refine and improve your site and better the customer or donor journey.

Your target audience is spending time on so many digital platforms it’s hard to know where to engage them with content and conversation. Add to this the additional dynamic of your competition and try to understand how they’re tackling the digital marketing challenge. So, you know you have to invest in digital marketing, but you have no idea how to get the most bang for your buck or if you’ll even convert the targeted traffic you attract through your website.

In this 4-part blog series, we’ll explore where organizations like yours are investing their digital marketing dollars, where your competition plays a part in you choosing where best to spend your marketing money, and how you can ultimately decide on a direction, strategy, and plan that maximizes results for your organization. Ready for part 2?

EAGER TO GET STARTED TODAY? We can do a Drupal & WordPress Code Review of your site to identify exactly what’s working and what isn’t.