Now, the process is more complex. There’s a multiplicity of digital marketing channels to manage in order to ensure your product gets in front of your online clients.
How to Select Digital Marketing Channels
So how do you decide which channels to prioritise? For start-ups and SMEs with limited budgets, decisions often get made in one of the following ways:
- What in-house expertise do we already have?
- What digital channels do we hear about most?
- How much time can we devote to digital marketing?
- How much can we afford?
In the absence of a marketing team who can guide the conversation, it’s all too easy to fall into self-limiting thought processes. These run the risk of failing to connect with the very customers you need to engage.
The Outsourcing Digital Marketing Strategy
If you feel that your company lacks the expertise to make an informed decision about the digital marketing channels you require, there is an alternative. Outsourcing digital marketing provides you with instant expertise, a knowledge of the ways in which your sector is performing across a range of channels, and the ability to work with the budget you have to achieve the best return.
If you’re a young company, requiring a steady stream of traffic to your site in order to make sales, an outsourced digital marketing team will offer you:
- Clear Analysis. Advice on which channels your clients are accessing, and how they’re using them. This will probably include social media channels, but also search engine traffic, pay-per-click, and email marketing.
- Content Audit. Digital marketing is utterly reliant on content in order to work effectively. It’s likely that you’ll need a variety of content types to cover the range of channels you decide to use. This may include podcasts, video, white papers, blogs, tweets and posts.
- The User Journey. Advertising concentrates on selling, but digital marketing is about engaging. Every strategy needs to plot a customer journey from awareness, through evaluation, decision, retention and finally advocacy. Every digital channel feeds into one or more of these stages
- Strategy. Without a strategy it’s difficult to know what the interim goals are that will lead you to sales. All too often digital channels are seen as ‘failing’ because they don’t produce instant sales. Your specialist will be able to define goals, plot them on a timeline, and predict returns.
- Strategy Execution. Once your strategy is defined, and signed off, a digital marketing team will be able to carry it out in order to ensure that your goals are met. They will define the input required for each channel and project manage them.
Can I Afford to Outsource Digital Marketing Channels?
A digital marketing specialist will always determine your spend on the return you’re likely to achieve as a result. The likelihood is, therefore, that outsourcing your digital marketing channels is likely to save you money in the long run.
If you’re nervous about handing over control of your marketing strategy, you can always ask to talk to a client they’ve already worked with. This will allow you to find out how the process works, and whether the returns justify the outlay.
