TLDR
Intro
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, businesses need to reassess their strategies and approach. When it comes to mapping out activities for the upcoming year, it's important to consider whether you want to prioritize short-term gains or focus on long-term success. In this article, we'll explain why a long-term approach is usually more beneficial for digital strategy and marketing.
Misunderstanding Time Frames
Taking the approach for the long-term is well suited to digital strategy and marketing. The driving force behind the approach is the misunderstanding of time frames for most digital efforts. In a previous post we touched upon how anything digital is deemed instantaneous, and therefore digital results can be expected in short time frames as well. This is mistaken and the more we live our lives online and the more digital messaging and marketing efforts we get exposed to, the less engaged we become.
Furthermore, anything operating within the digital domain opens itself up to great competition as well. Purchasers are not limited geographically anymore and can do their own research and considerations of sellers with a few easy clicks.
This is why aligned digital efforts over time will bear results and should not be expected to work instantly out of the box.
Misunderstanding time frames and how they fit with digital marketing efforts is a key reason why results aren’t realised. With a long term approach to digital strategy and marketing, teams adopt a culture for continuous improvement in the long run rather than dropping at the first hurdle when short term results aren’t realised.
That’s why Knightlab almost always recommends a long term approach be taken for digital efforts, with the expectations of short term actions down the line.
Why a Long Term Approach is Recommended
Funnily enough a switch to a long term approach often sees an uptick of short term results. Playing the long game can change the approach from marketing teams to continuously improve over time rather than scramble when a short term strategy falls short.
An example of this is a change of approach from customer acquisition (eg. short-term) to brand and engagement (eg. long-term).
Higher brand equity and engagement results in trust and brand awareness for customers and audiences. And that more often than not results in better performance in the short term in the form of reduced lead times, lower acquisition cost, and higher return on investment.
This of course takes time to achieve.
It seems counterintuitive to focus on a long-term approach for better performance in short-term results, but it’s a big proponent of the Knightlab method and another example of how to do digital differently.
Ignoring the Long-Term Can Be Risky
By ignoring the long-term in your digital strategy and relying too heavily on the short-term you can actually shoot yourself in the foot and harm your business in the long run.
For example, focusing solely on paid advertising and ignoring organic techniques like SEO can have long-term ramifications. By the time businesses realize they need to focus on long-term actions, it may be too late to recover from the resulting problems.
What usually happens is businesses don’t focus on long-term action until it becomes a problem. At that point it’s too late and a slippery slope to recover from. In the previous example of relying on paid advertising over organic, businesses will find that they might not be able to sustain the cost for campaigns or have inability to convert the hordes of traffic to their site due to a lack of long-term focus such as organic or brand.
On top of this sometimes marketing teams think they’re doing long-term marketing but in fact are cutting corners for short-term results. Building on from the SEO example, picture a marketing team impatient with results and implementing old school black hat SEO techniques. Cutting corners will get found out and their property will be penalised setting them back even further.
Good Things Take Time (again)
It's important to understand that good things take time. This applies to the strategy behind your digital and marketing activities as well. While a long-term approach is usually more beneficial, there's a time and place for everything. Strike a balance between short-term and long-term success, by having one foot in each realm. Roll out short-term actions with the long-term strategy in mind and vice versa.
In conclusion, when faced with an opportunity to pivot long-term, it's important to ask yourself whether you want to prioritize short-term results or focus on long-term success.
By optimizing and strategizing for the long-term first, businesses can see the benefits in the short-term as well.