Have you ever had a special day coming up for which you wanted to look your best, and suddenly you looked in the mirror and thought, ‘I wish I could get in shape and lose twenty pounds before the event this weekend’?
If only you’d thought of it three months ago and started then… by now you would have made some real progress. Getting fit by this weekend, though? It’s not going to happen.
Just as lose-weight-fast and get-rich-quick schemes almost always end in disappointment, those who rely on panicked, last-minute marketing decisions are likely to end up dissatisfied with the results.
The lesson, of course, is that instead of waiting until the situation is dire and you need things to happen immediately, it’s always a better idea to decide where you want to be in three (or six, or twelve) months’ time, start down that road today, and build up steadily toward your goal. In terms of marketing, that means looking at your revenue targets, assessing whether what you’re currently doing is generating enough leads to meet those targets, and making any necessary changes now, long before panic mode sets in.
You’re always going to make better choices when you’re being proactive rather than reactive. When you allow yourself the time and space to build a successful digital marketing strategy, you can adjust your trajectory as needed based on metrics and data analysis. When you wait until you’re freaking out about the numbers, you’re very likely to make decisions based on knee-jerk emotional responses in a terrified effort to avoid going over the proverbial cliff.
If you need leads and it’s starting to feel like panic might be on the horizon, don’t wait until that panic is right on top of you. Recognize the issue now and resolve to start doing something about it immediately, while you still have some leeway to work with.
It may seem like a no-brainer that taking action now is better than waiting, but like many difficult decisions it is easier said than done. This is why digital marketing experts exist, to help you get started putting the right puzzle pieces together when you’re not exactly sure what fits where, or what the bigger picture is supposed to look like. Asking for help to correct your revenue generation issues doesn’t make you a marketing failure – quite the opposite, in fact. Acknowledging that there are problems and bringing in the appropriate team to solve those problems is one of the smartest choices you can make on your road to business success.
The old cliché is true: Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you want a digital marketing strategy that is going to yield the best results, start now, build up steadily, and ask for help from experts if what you’re doing on your own isn’t working.
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 nationally.
