Don’t burden digital with over-expectations

Nowadays, we hear and read about many companies — some in their formidable years, and others who have been in the market for some time — using the power of social media, mobile marketing and other platforms in digital to acquire new customers. Or stay connected to them.

To be precise, the use of digital marketing has become ordinary for all firms.

Many of these companies resort to perform digital marketing themselves by investing time and expect to get immediate results like, say, instant noodles.

But when this does not work, one tries the paid advertising route. With paid advertising unable to pull customers overnight, one chucks the task to a young smart digital agency to crack the digital solutions and expect magic to happen the next day — increase in likes, website visits and so on.

In a few months, they realise the magic has not happened.

Then what do they do? Speak to some digital gurus (nowadays, everyone seems know everything about digital marketing.) After serious consultation, one decides to try an in-house digital marketing expert without any benchmark or experience on how to hire the right candidates.

Sound familiar? Are you also struggling to produce results using digital marketing? You are not alone.

Let us streamline the process and see what the pitfalls are in optimising digital marketing.

* Companies need to understand that digital marketing is not an extension of their IT department

Often, the digital marketing department is projected as an extension of the IT division with the company treating it as a technology piece as against a marketing function. And they expect the IT team to use all of their hardware jargon to streamline the company’s digital marketing department.

It is like expecting the tea to taste like coffee just because it is brewed in the same pot.

* Companies need to play their role than leaving everything to their agency partner

It is either that companies do not have a right agency in place or they did not play the role they should have and expected the agency to be solely responsible for the success of their digital marketing initiatives.

Getting themselves educated about the appropriate approach to leverage digital opportunity helps them restructure their thinking and processes related to digital marketing.

* Companies do it because it is the ‘in’ thing

Social media is being used by all firms... however it is not a sufficient reason for a new or existing company to set an investment on the same. Rather than an influenced decision based on the popularity of a medium, the choice of a digital media platform should be based on business objectives and target audiences.

Social media may be useful for brand promotion for a large organisation while search engine optimisation may be more appropriate for a start-up if lead generation is the primary objective.

* Companies expect overnight results

With the stats available on digital media platforms, companies want overnight results. To have a good and responsive digital strategy, it would need a couple of months to sight dividends and results. For example, a SEM would need a couple of months before the business can see results.

* If digital media is king, then content is queen

To have a successful digital campaign, a regular flow of digital specific content is needed. This should be relevant and interesting to hold viewers’ interest.

Often we see traditional offline writers try their hand at content writing in the digital scene. Since they are not used to the style of writing digital content, they fall short of expectations.

Hence, it is best to write something that is digital-platform-tailored.

— The writer is Director at Venture Communications, part of Verse Group.