Online marketing is a fast-moving, fast-paced field that is constantly changing and evolving. That may be a big reason why it’s hard for me to believe I’ve been working exclusively in this field for just over a year. I thought this would be a good opportunity to collect some thoughts I’ve gathered over the last 12 months.
The first lesson I’d like to focus on is the value proposition. Prior to joining Cirrus ABS I worked in the public sector. Unfortunately there is a highly visible example of how irresponsible government employees behave in the news right now, but responsible public sector works are always trying to figure out how to stretch their resources to provide the most value. When business increases in the private sector, it’s usually accompanied by more income and you can use that influx of cash to address resource shortfalls – this doesn’t happen in the public sector.
Just because you have additional resources to throw at a challenge, it doesn’t mean that’s going to be the most productive use of that money. From a marketing standpoint in the public sector we focused on how we could make the most use out of any activity because our greatest commodity was time. The more efficient we could be with time, the more flexibility we had to address resource allocation issues. This is a valid lesson that can be applied to online marketing in the private sector as well.
Many times when I discuss online marketing with others in the community the focus is on using a particular tool (i.e. “Is Facebook important?”, “Do my customers really use Twitter?”, “Do I need a Google+ page?”), rather than on what they’re trying to accomplish, like increasing sales from their current customers, bringing more new customers to their establishment, or introducing new products and services.
Once you focus on a goal, you can start developing a strategy to achieve the goal. It may include some or all of the channels mentioned above. It may use completely different channels you’ve never heard of. It’s very easy to spend lots of money on social media and see no results from your effort.
Anyone can accomplish anything when it comes to online marketing, it’s really just a matter of how much time do you want to spend maintaining the solution and how much money are you willing to spend supporting it. At first there may be some guesswork involved at where those lines intersect, but over time proper data analysis will reveal the value and how much effort and money is necessary to achieve your goal.
Over the last year working with Cirrus ABS partners and potential partners, it’s clear to me these lessons from the public sector are even more critical in the private sector, especially given the current economy. Working through how to develop a strategy to achieve business goals is far more critical than embracing the latest fad. Learn more about how we approach online marketing consulting and let me know if we can help you out!
