“When Do I get Results?” – The Life Cycle of a Digital Marketing Campaign in an Agency?

When a client starts working with a digital marketing agency on a campaign, they may be wondering what to expect and when they will start seeing results. The answer is that there’s no quick fix solution.

In my experience, if a client has unrealistic expectations it’s usually because they wanted to see immediate changes. They’re going to be disappointed however as it can take a few months just to set the digital marketing campaign up.

One of the many questions our clients ask is ‘How long will it take?’ I would like to share with you my insights into how long it can take to start seeing a return on investment from the campaign.

The first three months

From 0-3 months is known as the ‘Setup’ phase and this is where we build the campaign, set up the digital media infrastructure, assess touch points, the baseline and start to establish listings on search engines. You’ll start to notice an increase in followers and the beginnings of a content strategy as we increase interactions from members and initiate brand mentions.

Both I and the rest of the team will be hard at work designing and building the web strategy, using the right combination of digital marketing products for your budget and determining how we can utilise these to best effect.

This can mean social media marketing, websites, email marketing and mobile campaigns to name just a few. After vigorous testing, we’re ready to start implementing a plan of action.

Getting the campaign rolling

This can take anywhere from 4-9 months and involves transforming the touch points into conversation points. We’ll begin integrating mobile with social media, increasing customer service and from placing the campaign on search engines we can attract more members and new sales.

In this phase we may be still testing things out to see what works the best, but we can measure and track which parts of the campaign are the most successful.

Positioning your brand

From months 10-15 we will be focusing on increasing your sales revenue, gaining new positions on search engines and converting conversation points to conversion points. We can make sure you’re on track by using web analytic tools to monitor the campaign and bring to your attention any areas we believe should be focused on instead.

Time to expand and then – go viral!

Between 16-27+ months the campaign will become more stabilised on search engines. You’ll become established as a thought leader, start gaining brand power and in return, see a steady stream of revenue. Continuous growth can then be achieved through social media, as your campaign goes viral and you expand your followers.

Finally, after the campaign starts to become successful, we will evaluate the campaign’s results and assess any areas where we could have taken a different approach. Remember the life cycle of digital marketing is just as much a learning curve for you, as it is for us.