We all must have come across great stories about Alladin and his Genie. Whatever Alladin wishes, Genie fulfils. Great fairytale and I love those bedtime stories. During my experience in technology marketing, I have come across few founders and marketers who think Digital Marketing as Genie and themselves Alladin :)

When I started my journey, I was also thinking along the same lines but learned the hard way. Digital Marketing cannot fulfill all your wishes instantly. It is not a Genie.

We need to invest a lot of TIME, EFFORTS, PATIENCE, and MONEY (this is optimizable) to get the real long-term value from Digital Marketing.

Understanding digital marketing: Dispelling the genie myth

Creating a digital footprint takes time

When someone starts building a product or service line the focus is on the core business offering and Go-to-market takes the back seat. Only after the product or service gets traction that Marketing gets some attention. To create a digital footprint time is required.

You start putting your story out, connect with industry influencers, improve  SEO factors for better search results, set up your SEM strategy and continuously optimize it, request reviews, gain positive social engagements, etc., etc.  All this is not going to happen in 30/60/90 days. IT TAKES TIME. 

Lots of effort (from multiple skill-sets) are needed

Having a digital marketer not always means your digital marketing strategy is in place. Digital marketing is changing every second. Hiring a Digital Marketing expert does not assure your digital success.

You need different micro-skills to cover all aspects of digital marketing. Hiring one skill set won't bring success. It is always advisable to have multiple skills in your digital team to have a 360-degree view.

If budget is a constraint, do explore hiring a consulting firm to move things fast. IT TAKES LOT OF EFFORTS. 

Have patience (not saying infinite). Have long-term view

Once you are ready to commit to marketing, you should always have long-term view. Have a strategy first and then execute it, learn from the mistakes and re-visit to repeat the success. You cannot have a strategy and start expecting results.

For, e.g., if you are ready to invest in content marketing, first have a content plan in place, then build the content bank and then execute the strategy and measure your success. You need to go through the entire cycle. You need to HAVE PATIENCE to see your digital efforts show results. 

Have a budget allocated to your digital marketing

I was recently invited as a panelist for a discussion around 'Growth Strategies.' One of other panelist mentioned that he has a thumb rule of '10% for Marketing' from the ideation stage. I feel it is a very apt strategy. Whenever you are ready for marketing, commit 100%. If you want to see results, money would be required.

The investment can be on content creation, ads, tools, people, events, etc. or maybe all of them. Again you need to try multiple things and then you will see results. Keep a tap on the results, but when needed never deprive your marketing with funds. Have MONEY allocated for marketing and then commit to it.

My ideology for digital marketing is 'always aim to create a GROWTH ENGINE' which month-on-month, year-on-year gives you high-quality leads and keeps your revenue pipeline full.

Do share your thoughts and if you would like to talk about how to strategize your marketing goals, do let us know.