The Baggage of Long-Term Digital Experience
Be sure to watch out for inertia and broken clock syndrome so your digital programs don't get weighed down by your own success.
Be sure to watch out for inertia and broken clock syndrome so your digital programs don't get weighed down by your own success.
Starting your digital strategy from scratch is, in some ways, a far easier thing to do than to continue to productively plan, optimize, and enhance an ongoing program. However, not many businesses are in possession of a clean slate anymore. The number of those who have yet to enter the digital marketing game in at least some fashion is clearly dwindling both because, over time, many have recognized the efficacy of the various interactive channels and because some percentage didn’t and may not be here to compete anymore. New businesses and new-to-digital businesses have a unique opportunity to craft and hold to a digital marketing strategy that is devoid of the baggage that comes with experience.
We often tout the advantage of digital history and experience. Digital marketing history and performance data can tell you a lot about what works for what goals with what audiences at what cost in what circumstances at a particular point in time. It’s a backwards-looking snapshot of the opportunities and competitive situation of that moment and doesn’t tell you if you maximized those opportunities even if you are meeting your stated goals. The incremental optimizations within channels and across channels, on site and off are the everyday chances to test your programs and to bring them closer to your ideal. The problem is that all programs, especially successful programs, bring their own baggage. If you’re not diligent, success can weigh down your digital programs, making them sluggish and plodding. Eventually, probably quickly, you will end up with a less competitive and less effective program.
Here are some things to watch out for:
Challenge yourself to continually beat (not just meet) prior performance to avoid stagnation. Similarly, challenge your partners and vendors and avoid long-term commitments that lock you in without performance assurances or reasonable out clauses.
Using periodic external audits to get a non-biased but expert opinion can be another good way to shake up the current state and avoid gridlock in your thinking. Often a leadership change occasions such a fresh look, which may partly explain why CMO tenure is reported at an average of 18 months. I’m afraid that’s not often enough for most businesses to exercise their change muscles in digital marketing. While we continue to value and mine the information available from historical performance, we need to also recognize that historical performance data is necessary but not sufficient in itself to fuel our strategy. We must continue to look and plan forward, not backward, if we are to succeed.