Is your Digital Marketing Strategy Still Working in 2019?

Digital marketing is constantly evolving, and, in 2019, it is projected that over half of advertising budgets will be spent in digital (and this will only continue to grow). This means that digital should be at the heart of your sales or marketing strategy. While most businesses have embraced digital marketing, the question remains – am I having the biggest impact possible? Is my strategy and execution focused on the right areas?

The reality of digital marketing is that the “shiny new objects” rarely get consistent results until they’ve hit mass adoption. A solid strategy focuses on what actually works in digital marketing and finding creative and focused ways to take advantage of these. This is why I wrote the book Digital Marketing that Actually Works  to help businesses make smart choices in digital marketing based on what works now.So what actually works in 2019? Where should you focus your sales or marketing dollars to maximize return on investment?

Social Media: Social media is still a big part of most digital marketing strategies. Facebook and Instagram continue to dominate (Facebook mostly as paid, Instagram still offers both opportunities) and LinkedIn is emerging as a more powerful player worth your time and attention.

Digital Advertising: Digital ads represent over 50% of most ad budgets and are able to address full-funnel marketing or sales concerns. Funnel or Inbound marketing approaches are taking advantage of digital targeting while measurement is making digital advertising even more effective.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization is a tried and true strategy that gets business results. Don’t forget the importance of search, as for many businesses it represents over 50% their website traffic – and that traffic is very valuable. With the growth of mobile and voice, a solid search strategy should aim for a top three search result to break through.

Website: Your website is still incredibly important and likely the center of your strategy. Focus on making sure that your website is fast (Google recommends under three seconds) and optimized for mobile.

Conversational Marketing: Influencer marketing is growing in importance – for both B2B and B2C. Word-of-mouth and digital PR continue to provide opportunities for business growth. These areas tend to be under-invested in by businesses and present unique opportunities.

E-Mail: With mobile and chatbots, email doesn’t get a lot of attention but it is still one of the top tools to drive conversions and purchases. Don’t just focus on sending emails, but look at your ROI thoughtfully and be sure to link every email to a single and clear marketing objective.

CRM: CRM data is becoming more and more connected to other digital marketing channels, which is what powers the opportunities for personalization and customization. There are effective CRM solutions for businesses of all sizes, but effectively connecting internal sales, marketing, and customer service teams is still a big challenge.

Mobile: We know that mobile overtakes desktop in almost every digital marketing channel, so mobile optimization should be second nature. Emerging opportunities exist within mobile such as AR and VR.

As you build your digital marketing strategy digital marketing strategy for 2020 your focus should be on choosing a few digital marketing channels that really matter and focusing on mastering them. Do a few things well vs. many things poorly.

To facilitate this, we created the Investment/Impact graph to help businesses plot potential investments and make smarter choices. There is almost no end to what you could do in digital marketing, the question is what you should do. The investment impact chart allows you to plot your ideas or marketing investments based on the investment (total cost) and the impact that they are expected to have (sales).

A healthy marketing plan will have investments in low hanging fruit, the ROI center and big bets. As digital maturity increases so will the choices in investment/impact. There will be less low hanging fruit freeing up more investment for big bets.

Using the investment/impact chart to prioritize digital spending will help you prioritize digital investments. The challenge is to have the knowledge and experience to graph opportunities appropriately.

In 2019 and beyond digital will only continue to grow in importance. The challenge is to fully take advantage of it and focus on the most impactful areas for your business.

To learn more about Digital Marketing That Works Right Now, check out our webinar being held on September 26, 2019.