It’s easy for people to measure ‘doing’ as they can see the outputs of social media posts, the latest PR release or a new page within a website. What organisations struggle to measure and sometimes miss the value of, is the ‘thinking’ behind this.
I’m a strong believer of the 80/20 rule, particularly around successful and profitable digital projects. I see it on a regular basis with organisations launching new products or services. They proudly launch their product by creating a new webpage, then start posting the pants off it on social media, not forgetting the email marketing campaign and finally why not throw some PPC behind it. Job done – Right?
It’s not just new products either, the same thing happens with businesses who have an existing product or service that might be struggling. They think that by doing more of what they have been doing already, translates into getting more! Job not done – this is the wrong way to go about successful digital marketing.
What’s the saying? “If you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got”.
Simply by doing more PPC, more SEO or more social media, is unlikely to solve the issues around why a particular product has taken a downturn or turn around the fortunes of a struggling new service.
So, if the above scenario sounds familiar or you’re about to begin a new digital marketing campaign, I’d strongly suggest spending 80% of your time thinking and strategising and 20% of your time delivering outputs.
Here’s another saying for you; “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”.
Now is the time to take a step back and focus on the bigger picture. Not always easy I know, it can be hard sometimes even for people who understand the 80/20 rule, as they consider ‘thinking’ time is unproductive. As I always share with the SocialB team giving yourself the head space and planning time to really consider the bigger picture, the customer and the strategic approach needed is likely to be much more successful. Furthermore, when it comes to actually doing the physical outputs, it’s easier and more time effective with a firm plan in place to follow.
If you’ve been reading some of my other blog posts you already know I’m a stickler for wearing your customers shoes and listening more than talking online. To really be successful online and in business generally you have to not only wear your customers shoes but really understand their wants, needs and what problems you are solving for them.
Here are my tips for 80/20 rule digital success…
- Spend time being the customer – (if an international brand you need to do this on a per country level), this ‘time to think’ should include; understanding their language, their problem points and how they go about their journey in the broadest sense.
- Understand the competition and your USPs – if you only look at your own organisation’s products and services you won’t know what you are up against in terms of marketing and what’s on offer elsewhere.
- Map out your customer – Excel sheets are our favourite go to for information like this.
- Map out your digital strategy – this stage really is the life blood of a fruitful and profitable strategy online.
- Set up KPIs for each touch point of the process – there should be four stages to this (want to know more about these stages, drop me an email Lynsey@socialb.co.uk)
- Review, review, review – spend time monthly looking at these key points and then strategically review every quarter.
We know from experience, there isn’t a one size fits all when it comes to being successful online but following a core set of foundation steps can make achieving your digital goals almost fool proof. Go on, give yourself some ‘time to think’.