Marketing is as old as business itself. These days, marketing is done primarily through digital means. Yet it is governed by the same principles marketers have followed for generations. Here is principle #1: quality is what matters most.
In today’s digital environment, there is a temptation to mistake quantity for quality. The two are separate and distinct things. Moreover, the distinction between quality and quality is too important to ignore. Doing so puts a business at risk of wasting a ton of money on digital marketing services that produce little to no results.
Digital Marketing Has Measurable Goals
Quality matters because digital marketing has measurable goals. Those goals can differ from one business to the next. Regardless, goals are rarely defined by the volume of work done. They are defined by the results they produce.
Digital marketing’s two primary goals are:
- New Customers – Digital marketing is designed to reach new customers and bring them into the fold. These are customers who actually buy products and services.
- Brand Loyalty – Digital marketing is also designed to increase brand loyalty. In so doing, existing customers are retained even as new ones are being brought in.
How would a business know if its digital marketing efforts are accomplishing these two goals? By constantly monitoring customer volume, revenue, and brand-specific metrics. The volume of work being done only comes into play if a business owner suspects that not enough is being done to attract new customers and boost brand loyalty.
Quantity Doesn’t Mean Much
Quantity does not mean much in the broader marketing ecosystem. Unfortunately, it is not unheard of for digital marketing services to focus heavily on quantity as a means of producing billable tasks. But if those billable tasks do not produce new customers and increase brand loyalty, what good are they?
Webtek Digital Marketing is a Salt Lake City, Utah agency that serves both local and national clients. The company has a sister office in Austin, Texas. Webtek creatives could invest a tremendous amount of time pumping out on and off-site content ostensibly designed to market the latest brand they have taken under their wing. But even a ton of posts can represent wasted time and money if they don’t reach the brand’s target audience.
The Webtek team would not say that quantity is always a bad thing. It’s not, at least not on its face. Quality can be a very good thing if every task performed on behalf of a Webtek client adds value to the client’s marketing strategies. But if tasks do not add value, the quantity of said tasks is meaningless.
How to Achieve Quality
The superiority of quality over quantity should cause small businesses to take a good, hard look at their own digital marketing efforts. How do they achieve the kind of quality needed to attract new customers and strengthen their brands?
It starts with making a concerted effort to truly understand the audience. A company’s larger audience can be segmented into smaller groups for more targeted marketing. Once those groups are established, content and messaging should be tailored appropriately.
Business owners should seriously consider paying for digital marketing services as well. But there is a caveat: they should also do plenty of research to ensure they only sign with an agency with a verifiable track record of quality and success.
Completing an impressive quantity of marketing tasks doesn’t necessarily equal success. In today’s digital marketing environment, success is less about quantity and more about quality. If the quality is not there, the quantity of the tasks being performed is of very little value.
