One of the great advantages of online marketing is the ability to measure the efficacy and cost efficiency of the various elements that make up a marketing campaign. With the immediate feedback made possible through advanced data analytics, digital marketing leaders are able to quickly analyze what’s working and what isn’t, thereby ensuring that every marketing dollar invested in a campaign generates the greatest possible return.
Entrepreneurs, including those running startups as well as small- and medium-sized businesses, surely recognize the inherent value of measurability within a marketing campaign. However, there is always the risk of overlooking mediums like radio, simply because the gains from them are not so easily quantified.
Managerial Mistakes: The Effect of Narrow-Mindedness
Digital marketing has irrevocably changed the way marketing professionals and business leaders develop a marketing campaign, and it is certainly the case that these changes have had a positive effect on the marketing industry. Although the results have indeed been positive on the whole, a number of marketing professionals and small- and medium-sized business leaders have made mistakes that, upon reflection, they surely regret.
These digital marketers and business leaders have become so enamored with measurability that they are likely limiting the elements that can be incorporated into a marketing campaign by excluding that which cannot be precisely measured.
This sort of narrow-mindedness not only impacts the efficacy of a marketing campaign; it also limits the efficacy of the organization as well as its marketing team. It should be clear that such a narrow-minded approach is very likely to have a detrimental effect on the long-term viability of any company.
Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: The Impact of Outstanding Leadership
Small- and medium-sized business leaders must recognize that the key to navigating the unique demands of radio broadcasting and online marketing is to focus on hiring managers who understand both markets as well as the intricacies of diverse staffs. The most effective business leaders understand the benefits of a balanced approach in which the decision-making process is never needlessly limited by the kind of narrow-minded focus that routinely boxes in other, less effective business leaders.
Despite differences in the level of measurability between elements within a digital marketing campaign and elements within a radio marketing campaign, an exceptional business leader ought to understand how to adapt and utilize certain digital marketing metrics to improve the measurability of a radio marketing campaign’s key elements. Probabilistic and deterministic attribution, for example, might be used in measuring the relationship between offline marketing strategies and online consumer behavior.
It is certainly true that an offline marketing campaign will remain unlikely to feature the type of measurability inherent in a digital marketing campaign.
That being said, this simple fact should not be enough in and of itself to dissuade entrepreneurs from adopting a balanced approach to marketing that includes elements of both online and offline marketing, particularly since there are so many examples in which this kind of managerial mistake hinders a company’s ability to compete in the marketplace and ultimately turns into a source of sincere regret.
About Reed Gusmus
Reed Gusmus is an experienced digital marketing leader who specializes in lead/demand generation and analytics. Reed is the director of marketing with QASymphony , a QA tools and software testing company based out of Atlanta, Georgia.
Interested in a software testing career? The QASymphony Software Testing Scholarship was created to help students interested in software development/testing reach their goal of attending college or university.
