You’ve probably heard of online marketing. After all, almost everyone is doing it. Well, yes, but which form?

You’ve seen the billboards, the banners, the email signatures, and the like. And, of course, you’ve clicked on the ads. But, have you ever stopped to think about what’s actually going on behind the scenes?

More and more companies are turning to online marketing to grow their business. Yet, despite the widespread use of online marketing, many businesses still struggle to generate significant revenue through online channels.

Why Do Most Online Marketing Campaigns Fail?

So, why do most online marketing campaigns fail? There are three basic reasons:

• The strategy is wrong
• The execution is poor
• The results are unpredictable

Let’s explore each of these reasons in more detail.

The Strategy is Wrong

It’s always the strategy that gets companies in trouble. The strategy should lay the groundwork for the execution of the plan. However, too often, companies don’t establish the right strategy and then just throw together a plan to implement it. As a result, they rush the execution and don’t establish meaningful goals or metrics to determine the success of the campaign.

How can you establish the right strategy if you don’t have the data to back it up? The first step in establishing a successful strategy is by measuring the results of your previous campaigns. Once you have a good understanding of how previous campaigns performed, you can establish benchmarks for this upcoming campaign. For instance, did your last campaign generate $100,000 in revenue? Did it get 100,000 page views? If so, then your next campaign should aim to generate $200,000 in revenue and get 500,000 page views. Or, if your last campaign only got you so far-say, to $60,000 in revenue-then your next campaign should aim to generate $120,000 and get 300,000 page views.

The above example is a high-level view of how to establish a sound marketing strategy. At a more detailed level, you can break down the strategy into the following key components:

• Product
• Place
• Channel
• Measurement

The first step is to identify your target audience and consumer base. What are they, where do they live, what devices do they use, etc.? Once you have that information, you can begin to establish a buyer persona and create buyer personas. At this point, you should have a good feel for who your typical buyer is and what they want.

You can learn more about establishing buyer personas here:

Building a Buyer Persona

The next step is to establish the marketing plan. The marketing plan dictates how you plan to grow your business through online marketing. It includes everything from the budget to the target audience (including the type of content you will create).

The main purpose of the marketing plan is to lay the groundwork for the strategy. And, as stated, the strategy should be grounded in data. Without data, you don’t have a basis for your decisions. So, without further ado, let’s look at the three basic reasons why most online marketing campaigns fail: