7 reasons to think of your digital marketing like a new diet
A small business digital marketing journey is a unique experience. Broad digital marketing objectives and challenges are common to all businesses regardless of size; but small business budgets and limited person-hours are among the factors that mean a differentiated approach is critical. The small business approach must be exceptionally sensitive to those constraints and highly focussed on what it can realistically achieve.
'Diets, like clothes, should be tailored to you.'
Joan Rivers, Comedian & Actress
1. Your personal preferences are really important
That new-fangled fish diet will never work for you if you can’t stand fish and you’re far more likely to stick to an exercise plan if you fill it with activities you like doing. The same applies to digital marketing. Stop mentally committing yourself to digital marketing activities unless you can clearly see how they are going to work for you and you can face doing them day in and day out. There are any number of things that you could successfully do to market your business online. Pick the things you like. Make a commitment to anything you can live with or (better still) love doing. ‘Filling your social media calendar’ with fluff is missing the point; this is an approach for people who love social media or have way too much time on their hands to be running an actual thriving business.
2. There are no guarantees
The rate of change you can detect on a day-to-day or hour-to-hour basis can be painfully slow. Long-term progress is made up of a series of highs and lows. The lows come when you don t get the result you want when you’re expecting them. Sometimes the lows can feel very unjust – you’ve done everything by the book, but the needle just hasn’t moved in the direction you hoped. The highs come when something works and people respond to it. Sometimes it won’t be that dramatic, but you’ll look back over time and realise just how far you’ve come. The key is to keep going. Keep to your digital marketing plan and don t get disheartened by the lows. Don t be tempted to stop altogether thinking that it s not working and there’s no point in continuing. The truth is that all the best digital marketing is built on skill, good old-fashioned hard work and a little bit of luck.
When you feel like giving up, try to remember why you started
Unknown
3. Consistency can be a grind
When you’re trying to lose weight, it can be easy to get stuck in a rut and find yourself making the same mistakes over and over again. To succeed, you need two things: the first is an understanding of some basic metabolic principles, and the second is consistency. Without these two ingredients, your success or failure is down to luck. It’s difficult to figure out what works for your digital marketing, if you chop and change your approach, or continuously slip into poor routines. Just as you wouldn’t expect to lose weight if you only dieted for a week and then went back to your old eating habits, you can’t expect to see results from your digital marketing efforts if you’re not consistent and patient.
4. There are no easy shortcuts
Everyone knows that crash diets just don’t work and can actually be harmful to your long-term well-being, yet there’s an entire industry of pop scientists and snake oil peddlers that will tell you otherwise. Unfortunately, it’s the same with digital marketing. Seeing results can take time; no amount of cheating, hacking, shortcutting or one-trick ponying is going to do much for you in the long term. Unfortunately, just like the lettuce diet, they can produce an illusion of progress, particularly in the short term. But these tricks and hacks can actually harm your digital marketing impact; first of all, they distort reality – many of the big promises simply won’t deliver anything for the bottom line of your business. When you become hooked on all the wrong (but easy to observe) digital marketing metrics, you may find it really hard to sustain your motivation when you’re not getting a regular ‘instant’ buzz.
5. It can seem complicated
There is a lot of hype around digital marketing that can make it seem confusing, or complicated. But it doesn’t have to be. Losing weight requires more than just cutting calories; you also need to exercise and make other lifestyle changes. A common pitfall in small business digital marketing is the lack of strategy; there are just so many ‘easy’ options to choose from and very little time to think things through. But you need to do more than just post on social media or run a few ads; it really doesn’t matter how little you can afford to do, but it should hang together in a well-thought-out plan that takes into account your long-term goals, your target audience and your budget.
Progress may be slow, but periodically you will look back, amazed at the difference it’s made.
6. There are some things you just can't control
Sometimes, it’s the things control like your metabolism or hectic schedule that will have the biggest impact on your weight loss progress. Similarly in digital marketing, your competitors, the economy and where you live can have a huge impact on your effectiveness. On a positive note though, if you play to your strengths, there are plenty of ways that digital marketing will help your business grow and flourish in spite of external factors.
7. Planning is key
Nothing will bring down a diet like bad planning. Finding yourself home alone on a Friday with nothing but a family pack of Doritos for the company is never going to end well. Doing the supermarket shop having skipped lunch? Check. An unexpected girls’ night out? Ouch. Once you have your basic digital marketing strategy in place, a little bit of preparation goes a long way. Set just a little time aside each week when you are most likely to be able to focus. Limit the amount of time you spend researching so that you’re sure to get on to the actual doing. You really don’t need any more tools and utilities any more than you need the intensive learning curve that goes with most of them. Pick one or two tools that are a good fit for your goal and use them consistently until it’s effortless.
Conclusion: you've just got to keep at it
When it comes to the digital marketing strategy for a small business, you just have to keep going. Decide what ‘success’ looks like for your business, try to get an understanding of what’s involved and create a plan. Like dieting, digital marketing will give you the best results if you create habits you can sustain within the constraints that you live with. Success will come in many shapes and sizes, one step at a time.