9 Signs Your Digital Marketing Strategy Needs An Overhaul

Your digital marketing strategy is an investment of time, money and effort so it's understandable to be disappointed when you don't see the results you were expecting.

It can be difficult to figure out what's gone wrong, or to even realise that your strategy is letting you down. For this reason, we've compiled a list of the most common signs that your digital marketing strategy needs a revamp and what you can do about it.

If you find yourself scratching your head and wondering if something is going wrong, here are some of the 9 signs that your digital marketing strategy needs an overhaul.

1. Your return on investment isn't good

It's always good to see some tangible results for your marketing campaigns, but are your marketing efforts achieving the best possible ROI?

Consider how much it costs for you to acquire a new customer (cost-per-acquisition). The goal with this metric is to be acquiring new customers for the lowest possible cost.

If you aren't certain you're maximising your return on investment (ROI) as best as possible or it's costing you extravagant numbers to attain new customers, maybe it's time to reexamine your marketing efforts.

Additionally, if you're not sure of your ROI at all, it's possible you're not measuring the correct data (we'll touch on this later).

2. Little to no traffic

Seeing little to no traffic is a huge red flag.

If you're seeing poor results in this metric, this indicates that your marketing efforts are not actually driving any traffic to your website or social channels.

Little to no traffic is also an indication of why other metrics are failing. If your main marketing channels are seeing little or no traffic, this is a definitive sign your marketing needs a renewal.

3. Few conversions

If you're finding that you are receiving traffic, but your conversions are limited or non-existent, this can be an indicator either your campaigns or your website need an adjustment.

Calls-to-action are a possible factor that might need adjusting if you're not seeing conversions. Strategic placement of your CTA's are vital to achieving success.

If you're wanting help adjusting your marketing or website for conversions, feel free to reach out and book a consultation with one of our team.

4. Your campaigns are done last minute

While sometimes you have to throw campaigns together at the last minute, if this is a regular occurrence and your main source of developing campaigns, this could be hindering your performance.

To be competitive and effective in your campaigns, they take time to create. Additionally, in order to be cohesive in your approach to marketing, it's important you plan ahead, knowing what you'll promote, what topics you will cover and how you'll get the right messages out through your content.

This is a process that involves analyzing existing data, segmenting the audience, keyword researching, setting targets and A/B testing. Alternatively, you can hire others to take care of your social campaigns & marketing plans.

With a clear plan outlined ahead of schedule, your marketing will be much more effective.

5. Your social media campaigns are unsuccessful

Social media isn't something you can do once and hope that it will yield the results you're after - to be successful on social media, it requires time and effort.

One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is just posting content for the sake of posting content and not contemplating how it adds value to their audiences.

With all platforms having their own version of analytics, or at least performance analytics, you can evaluate what content resonates best with your audience. If engagement is low, this is an indicator that you need to switch up your approach.

Whether you decide to do it yourself, or outsource this task to a social media marketing professional, a social media revamp is one worth investing in.

6. You're not sure how to measure the data

In order to know if your campaigns are successful, you generally need to analyse the data. Additionally, the data needs to be measured against your goals.

Perhaps your initial marketing plan was made without KPI's (key performance indicators) in place. Unfortunately, it's not enough to run a campaign and have a vague idea of what you'd like to achieve terms of results.; knowing for certain what indicates success to your campaign is important.

This could be measuring bounce rates, conversions or comments - it all depends on your goals. This is why it's important to know these KPIs before implementing any type of marketing plan.

If you're unsure of how you should approach analysing the results of your campaigns, this may be another indicator your entire marketing strategy needs a revamp.

7. Your marketing strategy is not multi-channel

An "all-eggs-in-one-basket" approach to digital marketing is rarely an effective approach. It's important to consider the fact that your audience may not exist solely on one channel alone as well. A disjointed marketing strategy can also come across as an inconsistent brand image which also won't work in your favour.

If you want to maximise your chances of reaching as many potential customers as possible, diversifying your channel choices within your strategy is the most effective way to ensure you're doing this.

Additionally, if your service or product attracts a wider array of demographics, one channel simply won't reach them all.

8. Your website is lost in the rankings

It's well known that the majority of consumers search for business, products or services through search engines, most commonly Google.

Organic search engine rankings can be hard to achieve, but not impossible. With that being said, it does take a lot of time and effort to be successful in your SEO efforts.

If your SEO strategy involves a "just do" approach and a hope that it'll achieve the results you want, this could be a reason you're getting lost in the rankings.

To get your website out of the ranking trenches, it's important to have an effective SEO plan in place. To do so involves having a solid high-quality content plan, effective keyword research and an attractive backlink strategy.

You could also save time by outsourcing to SEO strategy services.

9. Your paid advertising generates limited or no results

Paid ads can be an incredibly effective way of generating new leads to your website, however, it can also be quite the financial investment. If done incorrectly, you can blow your budgets very quickly and see little to no results for money spent.

There are several reasons you could see no results from your paid advertising:

• Targeting for audiences, whether that be location, demographics etc., is misaligned.
• Searchers aren't converting (potentially tied in to off targetting or poor landing page/ user experiences on the website).
• Cost-per-click is too high.
• Ad copy is not competitive enough.
• You aren't monitoring your account enough.
• Keywords aren't refined or targeted.

Successful paid advertising requires continual effort and monitoring to ensure you're not wasting your money.

You could also choose to save time and money by outsourcing this strategy to a paid advertising specialist as well.

Overall, there are many signs your digital marketing strategy needs an overhaul and many reasons that your current strategy isn't serving you the return you're aiming for. With this guide in hand and a bit of an investigation, you can narrow down the potential causes and give your marketing the overhaul it needs.

Key Takeaways:

• Digital marketing takes time and effort to get results.
• Your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) should be as low as possible - if it's a lot higher than what you're making from gaining this customer, your return on investment is not being maximised.
• Seeing little to no traffic on your website is a red flag your marketing efforts are not working / effective in bringing traffic to your website or social channels.
• Receiving only few conversions can indicate your website isn't optimised effectively for converting sales or you're attracting audiences who aren't your target market.
• Leaving your campaigns to the last minute and not having a plan in place can leave them falling flat - in order to be competitive, organisation is key.
• Not putting time and effort into your social media strategy will let you down.
• Not having KPIs in place can leave you unsure how to measure your results.

If after reading through these points, you've decided that it is time to reinvigorate your digital marketing, feel free to reach out to one of your social media marketing specialists on (07) 5636 3700 for more information, or book a consultation today.