Are you frustrated with low or decreasing effectiveness of your online marketing efforts? Many of us are. There is so much advice out there; we try to follow it, but quickly find ourselves jumping down one rabbit hole after another. Worse yet, it all feels like it needs to be done right now.
Hiring an expert can help you identify the goals, priorities, and “low-hanging fruit.” Here are five ways a digital marketing evaluation from an expert or agency can help you jump over the rabbit holes and start making progress toward your goals:
- Audience: An expert can help you narrow down the audience. They will look at your usage data and customer lists so you know who you should be spending your time targeting your messaging to. (Hint: it’s never “everyone.”) Once you know who your audience is, you can target them more efficiently.
- Goals: An expert should help you articulate and refine your goals. There has to be a reason you are online. When you know what that reason is, you can center your online marketing messages around it.
- Priorities: Some things are just more important than others. As Jim Collins wrote in “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t,” if you have more than three priorities, you have none.
- Set-Asides: Saying “no” can be as important as (or even more important than) saying “yes.” Having a list of no’s gives your priority list dimension. You have to know what you are not going spend time on in order to stay truly focused.
- Next Steps: Your expert should then be able to pull the first four items together to create a “low-hanging fruit” list. These are the most actionable tasks that can be assigned right now. The low hanging fruit are tasks that are easy to complete and will create a large impact.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the information and advice available on digital marketing. If you are frustrated or concerned about the return on investment you are getting from your efforts, an evaluation from an online marketing strategist could help you get rid of your tunnel vision and see the big picture more clearly.
If you have a favorite online marketer, consultant or agency, feel free to plug them in the comments—there are some really great professionals out there to choose from. The important thing is that you get someone (i.e., an impartial, third party) to do the evaluation. It will put you on the right path and move your business forward!
