When to Change Marketing Strategies 

Your digital marketing plan could net your business millions of dollars today and fail tomorrow. In most cases, however, companies and brands take several years to outgrow the marketing plan. As company algorithms and practices change for the external platforms you use, you might also need to work with an internet marketing agency to update your SEO, reconfigure your website design and change the way you run PPC ads. The big question is: “How do you know when it’s time to do any of these things?”

Budget Constraints Change

Economic factors, how well a business performs, and recent decisions about budget allocations can affect how much money you have left to focus on marketing. For instance, if the company just committed resources to open a new branch or develop a new product, it might not have as much to spend on marketing for a time.

Whatever the reason for budget changes, marketing plans must change accordingly. The good news is there’s no need to reduce marketing efforts when improving them. Companies can instead invest in more cost-effective options, such as SEO over PPC and social media ads over billboards.

Return on Investment Drops

Ideally, someone tracks the performance of your marketing plan in not just conversions but cost. Even when the conversion rates remain the same, if the price goes up, your return on investment falls. For instance, maybe spending $100 per week on Facebook Ads earned your business five weekly buyers who spent $60 each, on average. If it then costs $150 to achieve the same results, your ROI decreased significantly.

Sometimes, companies decide to absorb the increased cost. However, if the company does not have a budget that can stretch to $150 per week, it might need to address this problem in the same way it does a budget constraint. As explained above, it does this by seeking more cost-effective marketing options.

Business Operations Change

Business or marketing operations can change in two main ways: type and size. For example, when a company that previously sold clothing might now offer professional styling services. If a restaurant attracts a large investment and expands operations from a mom-and-pop success to a local chain, then it has scaled up operations and, therefore, changed its size.

Both of these changes require a brand-new marketing plan. Companies market products differently from services. Grassroots marketing plans for small companies also work differently for larger chains. If the change involved mergers with or acquisitions by other companies and brands, it can further complicate the marketing plan and create the need for a new one.

Marketing Efforts No Longer Convert

Whether this results from external or internal factors, you might need to change your marketing plan. Internal factors might include changing the features of a product which turns customers away. External factors might consist of a national emergency that makes the product or service inaccessible or obsolete.

In these instances, the first step is determining the potential lifespan of the causes of your lower conversion rates. If the problem is short-term, then a periphery marketing plan might be enough. For long-term or permanent factors, consider creating a brand-new plan that addresses the current realities.

Social Media Reach Dwindles or Engagement Lowers

Social media algorithms and features change regularly. When they do, this can affect when and how you show up in your target audience’s feeds. Changes and upgrades might also affect how effective your social-media-based PPC ads are, such as the ones on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Figuring out how to combat and keep up with these changes is often a full-time job. Because of this, many brands hire this work out to a digital marketing agency. Letting the experts handle it also leads to fewer or less drastic fluctuations when external changes occur.

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It is important not to confuse changing your marketing strategy with rebranding. Sometimes one does cause the other, but they are not the same. Rebranding involves creating a new identity for your company, a product, or service. In contrast, you can change the way your brand connects with your target market while keeping the brand itself intact.

For more information on  marketing strategies, reach out to  the professionals at EWR Digital or check out some of our workshops and audits.