You just walked in class and see everyone turning in the assignment you forgot to complete. Think fast! What’s your excuse?
Just like the age-old “my dog ate my homework” line wouldn’t be the best to use, there are a lot of bad excuses floating around out there for not incorporating digital strategies into your marketing mix. The truth of the matter is that technology has changed the way businesses interact with their audiences. If you’re not taking advantage of the many touch points digital marketing offers your organization to build relationships with your customers and encourage brand loyalty, it’s likely you could lose them to the competitor that does.
There are plenty of bad excuses out there for not going digital. Here are three of my favorite excuses, along with a few good reasons why they just don’t hold up:
1. Social media is just a fad. I’m not missing out anything, right? Wrong. Old school, meet new school. While many traditional marketing tools are still effective, social marketing is here to stay. It is quickly becoming an inexpensive way to enhance or expand a company’s marketing efforts. Companies are constantly finding new ways to use social media and blogs to provide enhanced customer service, gain customer feedback and grow their bottom line.
2. My budget is already tight. I can’t afford to incorporate digital! One of the most lucrative aspects of social media is that it’s free! With a little training, you can find yourself building relationships, generating leads for your business and increasing sales with the investment of nothing but time. If your business is still in the growing phase, transferring some of your advertising budget from radio, television and print ads to targeted web, pay-per-click or mobile advertising campaigns could prove to be a better use of limited funds. Technological advances have created new ways to advertise to potential customers that help decrease waste and place your business only in front of consumers that would be interested in your product.
3. Social marketing is overwhelming. I’ll never get the hang of it, so why start now? I won’t argue with you on the fact that social media is constantly changing and evolving (see, for example, the recent roll-out of Google+). With so many new tools and trends, it can seem overwhelming to stay on top of the industry. If you’re just starting out, knowing the difference between a fan page vs. profile, likes vs. followers, tweets vs. mentions and hashtags vs. tags won’t come without a little research. Workshops, seminars and webinars are a great way to learn about the different social platforms and how to utilize them for your business.
Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will your presence in the digital space. But, getting past those “my dog ate my homework” excuses that keep you from going digital is a great start!