Many business owners seek marketing advice when they’re at a point of mild panic, when they’ve been trying different things and are uncertain of what else they can do. They’re hoping that an expert marketing strategy will help yield quick results to get things moving in the right direction again.
However, the reason it’s called a marketing strategy is because it’s not an overnight quick fix. A cohesive set of marketing campaigns takes time to plan and assemble, longer to execute, and even longer to see results. The good news is that a well-structured strategy sets you up for the long term, helping your business grow and thrive in a sustainable way from year to year, which is what every business owner wants.
So how long can you expect to wait before you start seeing the benefits from your marketing efforts? It depends on the type of campaign you’re setting up.
- Email campaigns: These have the least friction and the fastest turnaround time. A typical email campaign might take a week or two for the planning and structuring process, and then after executing the campaign, you could see results in anywhere from 1-8 weeks, with 4 weeks being quite common.
- Online advertising: These campaigns are relatively easy and fast to set up as well, a couple of weeks on average, but you might not start seeing real momentum until the campaign has been running for a while longer, usually between 6-8 weeks.
- Social media: A good social media campaign takes a bit more time to plan, given that you need to create a publishing calendar incorporating all your platforms, and of course you also need a decent runway of high-quality content in order to get the campaign started. It’s normal for that process to take about 3 weeks, and then once your campaign has started, you’ll need some patience as you find your audience and build a following. This varies greatly from business to business and platform to platform, but in general you can expect to start seeing results within about 4-5 months.
- SEO: This is one you have to be in for the long haul. You can get your initial setup going in about three weeks, but it could be 6-12 months before your SEO campaign starts having a powerful impact. During that time you’ll need to make adjustments as you accommodate algorithm changes and analyze your incoming data, and you’ll also be working on your link building during those months.
Keep in mind that these are ballpark guideline numbers — some campaigns take off right away, while others may need a little extra time and some fine-tuning.
In other words, if you have some big revenue goals for your business in 2025, it’s important to get started as soon as possible. Our team can help — just contact us for a free consultation and we’ll show you how to move toward those goals in the most efficient way, so that this year can be your biggest year yet.
COGO Interactive is an award-winning digital marketing agency specializing in online marketing strategy, web design, SEO and social media marketing. We work with clients in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC and across the nation.