When it comes to your digital marketing it’s important you don’t get false expectations of how quickly you’ll start to see the results you’re aiming for — remember all good things take time!
Exactly when you might start hitting your targets will vary depending on what aspect of your marketing strategy you’re looking at. Some tactics will need longer to build up and others may take less time to kick-start.
It's likely you'll see results from different channels at different times. For example, a channel like Google Ads usually shows results reasonably quickly compared to a channel such as SEO.
We've outlined the expected marketing results time per channel below to give you a little more of an idea.
The amount of time you start seeing social media deliver results will depend on exactly where you’re currently at in terms of social media presence. If you’re starting from scratch and creating brand new accounts then you’ll need to build your audience up from nothing, so you will need to focus on gaining followers through brand awareness and engagement campaigns. We estimate this will probably take around 3 months to get to a stage where you have enough followers to start really pushing for engagement.
If you already have a social media presence and a decent following (or when you get to this stage) we recommend allowing a further 6 months to begin implementing your social strategy, ensuring all posts are consistent to set up a brand image and tone to really reach your target audience and give them the type of content they will be willing to engage with.
So, all in all, we say social media should take between 6-9 months to start showing real results, so don’t give up if you’re only a couple of months in and you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere. It may be disheartening to hear that these things take time, but if you want to build up a page with a good following, and quality content with a clear brand image and voice, then patience is the key.
Remember, creating social media ads will speed up your page growth and engagements so it may be worth investing some of your marketing budgets into this area if you want to see quicker results through social media.
Recent GDPR updates have meant that email marketing has become more complicated and therefore more timely. Similarly with social media, if you’re starting from scratch and don’t have an existing mailing list then you’ll need to build one up to a point where it makes it worthwhile spending time creating email campaigns.
This can be a timely matter as you’ll now be relying on people to manually opt into your mailing list to comply with GDPR rules. Don’t think you can get away with using the emails of people that have been in contact with you for other reasons if they haven’t specifically opted in to receive marketing emails, this is against the law!
Again, patience really is the key when it comes to building up your mailing list. Ensure you’re clearly displaying how customers can sign up and make sure what you’re offering to send out is appealing - people don’t want to be spammed!
We suggest giving it at least 6 months to build up your mailing list and then begin sending regular campaigns out the followers you’ve gained. If they’ve specifically opted in to receive your content then they’re warm sales leads, and chances are, if you’re sending information on offers and events then they will be likely to take immediate action.
If you’re after quick results, Google Ads is probably most worthy of your investment. The campaign you set up will begin targeting the demographics you’ve supplied for your chosen keywords immediately, so you may see people clicking through to your website in a matter of hours.
However, as with everything, you will need to allow some time for some trial and error. Though the campaign starts working immediately, it will go through a ‘learning’ stage to allow it to understand how to go about reaching your target demographics and make the most of the budget you’ve supplied. This stage usually only lasts a matter of days and it’s worth the wait when you see the increase in click-through rate and the decrease in cost per click.
If you don’t think you’re getting the most out of your campaign then you may need to amend it based on suggestions supplied by Google Ads or through further keyword research. As we say, things may need a period of trial and error before you get a campaign that’s showing consistently good results, however, you should be able to see decent results within weeks of set-up.
Out of all the individual digital marketing tactics you implement, SEO is the most long-term strategy and the aspect that will require the most patience. This is due to the fact that SEO requires ongoing work to ensure your website is as good as it can possibly be and superior to your competitors.
Google takes some time to assess any alterations to your website, even if they are for the better. So while it may initially seem like a lot of time is being invested into SEO without any noticeable improvements to your rankings, those changes are all building towards good things in the long run.
We usually say it takes around 8-9 months for enough changes to be made to your website and to give Google enough time to process them for your website to start settling into a good ranking position. It may even be a year before you find you’re reaching the first page.
As they say, good things come to those who wait. So please be aware that if you want your online presence to be the best quality it could possibly be then you'll need to allow some time to start seeing results through digital marketing.
Not sure how to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns? Don't worry, we've got a blog post to help. Don’t attempt a rush job as this won’t be as successful in the long run.
If you're unsure whether you should invest in SEO or Google Ads, read our post comparing the two, or for more digital marketing info, check out the rest of our blog.
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