In a survey of 1,000 marketers worldwide by Rakuten Marketing, respondents estimated they waste an average of 26% of their budgets on ineffective channels and strategies. Considering the number of channels now available to market we suspect this percentage will continue to increase.
- Content Creation & Design
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Data & Analytics
- Google Advertising
- Facebook Advertising
- Premium Site Advertising
- Banners & Display Advertising
- Website Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Twitter Advertising
- LinkedIn Advertising
- YouTube Advertising
- Online Magazines
- Online Sponsorships
The above only mentions a few of the main areas for investment by many marketers, however, there are many more. A common misperception made by marketers is that a brand requires an allowance to spend their money inefficiently because they’re testing out new strategies and placements that prove to be not as effective as they anticipated. Whilst there is a level of accuracy to this statement, marketers should be developing laser targeted strategies rather than a shotgun strategy with any platform/service in which money will be spent.
The 5 key mistakes made by marketers are as follows:
- Ensuring that their underlying marketing strategy is in place and correct
- Underestimating the power of their channel data and how that informs a pivotal part of your marketing strategy
- Being locked into long-term agreements with under-performing advertisers and publishers
- Reporting success using incorrect metrics for your business or strategy
- Not distributing budget to the converting/selling platforms/services
The above seems like common but so many still get it wrong. So, in order to ensure you are not wasting your money, make sure you can answer the questions below, before spending more of your valuable marketing budget:
- Who is your customer?
- What platforms are utilised by your customers?
- What is being searched for by your customers?
- How much will it cost me to reach my customer?
- What is your company visibility against your competitors?
- How difficult will it be to achieve the desired results on these platforms?
- Is your marketing strategy based on assumption or data? (Laser targeted v shotgun)
- What does ROI look like for your company?
- Do you have the right tracking in place to successfully manage your campaigns?
- Do you have enough marketing budget to sustain your campaigns?
- How do you plan to optimise your campaigns?
- How will you report and draw insights from any of your marketing efforts?
What needs to be remembered, is that looking at any marketing efforts in silos will not be effective. Whilst one campaign might be working, another could be failing. Reporting on your marketing strategy and the success of the money you are investing, needs to look at your whole digital ecosystem, completely integrated.
Want to know how Algorithm can help you answer those 12 questions for your brand/business, take a look here. The Algorithm content visibility and opportunity analysis is just one powerful tool in driving performance marketing and content strategy. If you need help bringing your marketing strategy into a single reported ecosystem, take a look at our integrated reporting services.
