Strategic Pivoting in Digital Marketing
When it comes to your digital marketing strategy, it’s easy to get comfortable with what you’ve done for months and even years. Even if a certain channel isn’t performing its best for you, you may continue with it for fear of changing and trying something new. When it comes to the growth and success of your business, knowing when to pivot is an important skill and mindset. You never want to become stuck in a rut. Here’s what you should know about strategic pivoting in digital marketing:
When to Pivot
Deciding to pivot with your digital marketing strategy is going to require both an investment in money and time, so you want to make sure it’s the right move before you begin. Knowing when to pivot isn’t always easy, but one of the big signs that it is required is when a part of your digital marketing efforts isn’t paying off the way you thought it would.
You want to give each channel time to work, but if nothing is happening after six months or a year, a pivot should happen. Throwing time and money in something that isn’t working is a waste of good resources. If the results of your current digital marketing aren’t aligning with your business goals, consider a pivot. Other reasons to consider a pivot with your digital marketing include:
- Decline in engagement on social media or with your blog content
- Website traffic is down or plateauing
- Conversions are down or remaining the same
- Search engine prominence has declined
Analyzing these areas is required before you take the leap and pivot. You might notice that conversions are up during the same time of year each year. In a case like this, figuring out how to increase conversions during the slow months is an option. If your search engine prominence is not as high as it used to be, what is the cause? Is it related to content or keywords?
Implementing a Pivot
Once you’ve decided that a pivot is required, you need to be clear on goals and a deadline for testing out your new channel to know whether it’s effective or not. Things to consider when implementing a new strategy include:
- What areas you want to see improvement (website traffic, engagement, conversions)
- How often you will assess that progress of your new channel (monthly, every six months, once a year)
When you implement a new channel into your digital marketing strategy, you can’t just set it and forget it. You want to have a plan before changing your digital marketing strategy. As you consider implementing a new channel into your digital marketing strategy, you want to reassess your current strategy and why it may not be performing as well as it once was.
If keywords aren’t driving in the organic traffic they did six months ago, you don’t want to just drop keywords or SEO from your strategy. Do keyword research and discover what your target audience is searching for now. Your pivot could be as simple as updating your keywords. Keyword research should be done on a regular basis to make sure you’re implementing currently used ones.
What to Pivot
We’ve mentioned channels when pivoting your digital marketing, but that’s not the only area to consider. You should consider testing out a new social media platform that you haven’t explored yet. Of course, you want to make sure your target audience spends time there. If they don’t frequent a specific social media platform, you don’t want to invest time and money in it. Your audience could be another pivot that you make. A new audience might make sense if your business goals and your audience aren’t aligning anymore.
Deciding to pivot your digital marketing strategy shouldn’t be something you take lightly, but you don’t want to avoid it when necessary. Take data into consideration before you pivot your digital marketing strategy. It could be the best thing you do for your business.
Categorized in: Digital Marketing
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