How to Succeed in Digital Marketing

Succeed in Digital Marketing Through Your Failures

How do we succeed in digital marketing and grow from our failures in this rapidly changing digital world? Well, marketing failures are more common occurrences than many of us realize, especially for small businesses starting out. 

While it’s easy to feel disheartened and overwhelmed by these setbacks, we can grow stronger to develop effective content marketing strategies. In this Midwest Mindset for Marketing (The Omaha Podcast), Gwenn Aspen, the CEO, and co-founder of Anequim, shares her fair share of marketing failures and how she overcame them.

How to Succeed in Digital Marketing

Gwenn Aspen’s Story: Turning Failure into Success

Gwenn Aspen, a dedicated business owner, was determined to prioritize her company’s operations and nurture the relationships she had with her clients. As a result, she found herself with little time to devote to marketing. Believing that the task was too large to handle on her own, Gwenn and her team decided to hire a marketing agency.

As time passed, Gwenn noticed that her business growth primarily stemmed from referrals and networking rather than any tangible results from the marketing agency’s efforts. This realization led her to conclude that her marketing strategy was failing and providing no return on investment (ROI).

Read the full transcript

And after investing a considerable sum of money in a Google ad campaign that fell flat, Gwenn and her team felt disheartened; and to make matters worse, the marketing agency she worked with was deceptive and failed to explain the results correctly.

However, Gwenn’s experience taught her a crucial lesson that she wouldn’t have learned otherwise: marketing should not be that hard; it should be easy to understand and accessible, not an opportunity for agencies to take advantage of your business. 

Through this experience, she knew she needed to find a strategy that she and the Anequim team could understand, track, supervise, and work on. But more importantly, she understood that marketing failures are a normal part of a business journey.

Do You Need to Be a Marketing Expert?

Turning marketing failures into success doesn’t necessarily require you to become an expert in the field. Instead, it’s about understanding the basics of your audience and continually evaluating its performance. By doing so, you can identify areas for improvement and build on what’s working well.

Gwen’s journey serves as a prime example of this approach. After realizing that her marketing efforts were failing, she decided to take a more hands-on role in her company’s marketing strategy.

So, how do you turn your marketing failures into success? You need a basic grasp of who your audience is and how your marketing strategy is performing, to keep doing what’s working and improving what’s not. 

How to Succeed in Digital Marketing Turning Failure into Success

This basic information, like your target audience, buyer persona, and social media presence will push your digital marketing forward. 

However, If you’re struggling with a content marketing agency that isn’t fully explaining or gatekeeping information, don’t worry that much; you can always change strategy. Believe us, even the most experienced and successful organizations have had this problem.

This shouldn’t be taken as a step back or failure but rather an opportunity to change and invest in a strategy that will pay off and that your business can learn from, 

How to Succeed in Digital Marketing: Be Patient and Embrace the Cringe

Marketing can be a slow process, and while it’s easy to become impatient or discouraged when results don’t materialize immediately, it’s crucial to remember that many aspects of digital marketing take time to show significant results.

One prime example is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy, but it can take months of consistent effort before tangible results become evident. 

Don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself or experiment with unconventional ideas. The truth is, some of your boldest attempts might not resonate with your audience, but they will undoubtedly teach you valuable lessons about what works and what doesn’t.

Embracing the cringe means making content out of your comfort zone, but it also means being open to feedback, both positive and negative. Constructive criticism can help you identify areas for improvement and refine your digital marketing strategy.

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Remember: Success in digital marketing is often the result of learning from setbacks, refining your approach, and continually adapting to the ever-evolving landscape. 

Keep pushing forward, and embrace the lessons that failure teaches. With time and persistence, you’ll unlock the perfect formula for digital marketing success.

Choose a Transparent Company That Shares Information and Tools

If you hire a marketing company for your content strategy, when selecting an agency, look for one that is easy to talk to and transparent about what they do. 

A genuine marketing agency will share all the tools and insights on what is working for your company. Transparency and open communication are essential for fostering a healthy and productive relationship between your business and the agency.

Turning Failure into Success

Tips for Marketing Success: 

So, now that we have gone through all this information, here is a recap of Gwenn’s tips to transform failure into success

Know where your leads are coming from: This insight helps recognize what your marketing strategy needs and should look like; for Gwen, this meant shifting her focus and resources to the channels that were generating results.

Monitor your marketing performance: Gwen learned the importance of regularly tracking the performance of her marketing campaigns. By doing so, she could identify which tactics were effective and which needed improvement.

Adapt and refine your strategy: Become involved in her marketing efforts, and start experimenting with different strategies and techniques. This will allow you to fine-tune her marketing approach and optimize it for better results.

Collaborate with trustworthy partners:  transparent professionals who genuinely care about their client’s success are the people you want to surround yourself with. Avoid scammy marketing agencies that only want your money. 

Maintain open communication: Establish clear lines of communication with your team and external partners. This allows you to stay informed about her marketing campaigns’ progress and make data-driven decisions.

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Marketing Failures Are the Way to Succeed

Lastly, patience, perseverance, and a willingness to learn from mistakes are crucial ingredients for turning marketing failure into success. 

So go ahead, embrace the cringe, and watch your business flourish with the support of a transparent and communicative marketing agency.

In the end, marketing can be about having fun and embracing the embarrassment that comes with making wild ideas into reality. Sure, it’s also about perseverance, persistence, and data, but with a little bit of fun and letting your imagination run free, it can also be a very fun and fulfilling experience. 

From free weekly marketing resources on our podcast, Midwest Mindset for Marketing, to professional coaching and consulting, to having us do all of the work for you at Two Brothers, we believe every business deserves affordable and effective marketing. 

If you need help with your marketing, we are here for you. At Two Brothers, we are passionate about helping entrepreneurs and business owners like you because we believe every business deserves affordable and effective marketing.

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