What Difficulties do digital marketers face? Ability to effectively manage the expectations of their clients!
So many times we’ve had potential clients come to us complaining about how their previous digital PR or social media marketing campaign didn’t work out the results as per the expectations.
Let me know, let you know, what we hear when asked this
“What were your goals?” And the responses have always been like the once you find below:
“To get 20,000 Facebook post comments in 2 months” or “to sell 50,000 units of my newly launched book in 3 months”
There’s no way that these goals are considered as real.
Being experts of “Online Sales and Marketing” it is our prior responsibility as your marketing and PR team to manage your expectations properly so that you can understand the relevance and importance of our contribution towards the overall growth of your brand. Without taking the time to do this, no one will be happy with the results, including us.
1. This is a Race, Not a Sprint:
2. Before starting Must Understand the Purpose of Digital PR & Social Media Marketing:
Any time a potential client approaches you and says ‘I’m hoping to gain an additional XYZ number of sales from this campaign’. Or even asks ‘What sort of sales should I expect to see from this campaign?’ We immediately understand that there is a disconnect between what the client thinks PR / Social Media Marketing does, and what it actually does.
It’s important to have an in-depth on the followings:
The sole purpose of digital PR is to expand visibility and brand awareness and to spark new conversations about you. It can lead to new fans funneling back to your social media accounts or website.
The sole purpose of social media marketing is to engage in conversations with existing and new fans and potential customers. It is to build increased loyalty which can ultimately be converted to mailing list signups (aka long-term superfans).
Digital PR and social media marketing are only part of the funnel that will convert ‘fans’ or ‘likes’ into ‘customers’. It alone will not have a direct correlation to sales.
3. Goals of the Clients should be Framed Before:
4. Clarity on the Scope of Work:
Not all digital PR and social media marketing are the same, and in fact, there are several ways that it can be executed with a wide variety of focuses.
For example, my firm Cyber PR very specifically focuses on niche PR and influencer marketing. It helps clients to tell unique stories that weave their passions and their backgrounds that reach into other markets.
It is not our specialty to only run location-specific or event PR campaigns. Many other firms do this well. So, understand what type of firm you are speaking to before you approach for a campaign.
5. Maintain Transparency with Your Team:
In order to make sure your goals are on point, and to further make sure that we are working effectively to achieve these goals, we need to be communicating!
If you come to the table with a goal and then disappear for a month, it becomes incredibly difficult for us to manage your goal as we continue to work on your behalf. If you are going to run a digital PR or social media marketing campaign, understand that your involvement and ability to stay proactive throughout the process will be instrumental to your success.
A client who checks in, follows through, and develops a relationship with my team, is FAR more likely to succeed than someone who pays for the campaign, and then shows up at the end wondering what happened.
6. Accept That Digital Marketing Solution Providers Doesn’t Have ‘Typical’ Results:
There is no way to answer this because every client and every campaign is different.
There are a lot of factors that a digital marketer or publicist can control, such as how well the pitch is developed, how good of a target blogger list is and how strong the relationship with media makers within a given niche is, that can really determine the effectiveness of a campaign.
However, there are a lot of outside factors that digital marketers cannot control such as demand for new stories within your specific niche, how much opportunity in that niche exists (i.e. the number of blogs actively covering the niche) and how well your story resonates, that will ultimately be the deciding factors.
Check out the list of Free Social Media Software to manage social media more effectively.
