How successful is online marketing?
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
These words by John Wanamaker, avant-garde marketer and entrepreneur, who first promoted truth in advertising (what a brilliant concept), mean just as much today as when they were first spoken in 19th century USA.
Only now, everyone is swimming over their heads in a sea of digital marketing options and struggling to figure out how to measure return on advertising dollars. Wouldn’t you love to know how your investment played out and what part of your messaging succeeded in a generating a sale?
That is the promise held out by the online marketing industry but so often left unfulfilled.
Discombobulating the mystery behind it all would take away so much confusion and the frustration! We’re so far beyond the entry point in this era of electronic information consumption – you’d think with software programmed to automate, optimize, track and analyze, things would be so much simpler.
It’s no surprise when you consider all the elements at play that unfortunately, there is no straight line between what you put out there and the path customers follow before eventually making a purchase.
And to make things even more interesting, this doesn’t take into consideration pairing up online efforts with traditional marketing tools and adding them into the mix.
So what works and what doesn’t? While we don’t have all the answers, we can we help navigate these troubled waters.
If this topic interests you, the Huffington Post provided an excellent article on the topic that provides additional thoughts.
