Despite hurdles like ad blockers, infinitesimally small attention spans, and the sheer volume of competition on the Internet, digital marketing budgets are exploding in 2016. Last year advertising experts predicted that digital advertising would soon surpass television marketing budgets, while Internet marketing budgets for SEO, social media marketing, PPC, and other kinds of outbound marketing are also growing fast.
It’s easy to see why. This month Google alone will see more than 10.3 billion searches, and 78% of Internet users now use the Web to find new products and services. At the same time, 78% of corporations said they had social media management teams in 2015 (only 67% said the same in 2012). And while offline advertising budgets shrunk last year, social media marketing budgets grew to account for 14% of all Internet marketing activities.
Whether it’s on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, through social media “influencers,” Youtube, or even all of the above, companies can no longer ignore the opportunities of social media marketing. From massive Fortune 100 companies to ambitious young startups, social media marketing and Internet marketing are ascendant in 2016.
But increasingly, smart companies are realizing the benefits of outsourcing their social media management to a marketing firm that specializes in this sector. And again, it’s easy to see why. Although virtually every company has at least some form of online presence, far fewer companies actually have a cohesive Internet marketing strategy. Too many organizations spend too much time on social media management without ever seeing a return on investment.
Many brands mistakenly believe that having a social media marketing plan is non-optional in 2016, but because the ROI of social media is notoriously difficult to measure, they don’t realize they’re actually wasting time and money.
Have you ever calculated the opportunity cost of the time and resources you pour into social media? And if you have a dedicated marketing expert managing your social media accounts, have you asked yourself if their activities bring in enough revenue to justify the costs of employment? Rather than hiring new employees with benefits, more and more organizations are discovering that outsourcing Internet marketing to a social media marketing firm saves them time and money.
Not only does it allow companies to save money on social media management costs, but the best digital marketing company can actually increase the ROI you get from the social sphere in the first place.
If you’re handling your social efforts in-house, it’s time to start doing some hard math. You might not like what you find.