Challenges in developing and managing a digital marketing strategy

There a many challenges to face as you develop and manage your digital marketing strategy. Whether you are an internet only business or have an offline presence and have recently launched an online presence, you will find that there are some hurdles to encounter as you try to achieve your goals.

The first mistake that many businesses make is not having a digital strategy. They may have a business plan that includes a marketing plan, however, if online marketing is important for the business, then a digital strategy should be developed and managed.
Here are 7 challenges to be aware of as you develop and manage a digital marketing strategy:

1. Unclear responsibilities

This is one of the first and major challenges and can lead to poor results for the organisation. Each tactic in the strategy should be assigned to staff, freelancers or the agency to manage and monitor and you should ensure that the person or team responsible has the knowledge and skill to do the work and is clear about what the expected results are.

Hiring skilled digital marketers for a wide range of work like copywriting, search optimisation, pay per click advertising etc is often difficult and it usually requires outside help from specialist agencies or consultants with industry experience.

2. No strategic objectives

Marketing objectives help to define what you want to achieve in the short term. They should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Related) and should help to guide the marketing strategy and tactics that you need to implement.

3. Insufficient budget

Without a sufficient budget, it’s not possible to implement the tactics which are part of your digital marketing strategy and it’s therefore impossible to achieve your objectives and goals. An insufficient budget also means that customer demand for online products and services is underestimated and this potentially leads to competitors gaining market share through superior online activities.

4. Budget is wasted

Budget wastage is common with channels like pay per click (PPC) marketing because of various factors like low skills in managing it, poor planning, experimentation and little knowledge of how it fits into the rest of the marketing strategy.

5. Online value propositions not developed

Many businesses treat the internet as just another channel to promote their products and services and they don’t review its potential and difference from other channels. The internet provides many unique opportunities that are often difficult with other media, such as personalisation and the opportunity to create a two way conversation.

6. Digital marketing results not measured or reviewed adequately

Measuring and reviewing your online campaigns is essential because this helps to assess if you are achieving your objectives. So, without measuring, you cannot take action to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns. There are tools to help you do this including Google Analytics which is free and comes with features that allow you to track visitor and customer acquisition, behaviour on your website and conversion metrics.

7. Experimental and not planned approach

Experimenting is sometimes important when you have various features in your products but you are not sure which ones will bring you the best results from your online advertising. However, a planned approach for what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it is of paramount importance and when this is in place, you should immediately implement resources and create a unique offer from competitors’

Summary

Download the free digital marketing strategy template to plan your online campaigns and tactics and achieve your business goals. You can contact me to discuss your requirements and to find out how I can help you develop and manage your marketing strategy.