“Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration.” – Sumner Redstone

How the heck did we get to the end of the year already? It seems like just yesterday we were working on Q3 and Q4 plans. But, here we are, with less than 15 days left of 2011.

It seems right to take a moment to reflect on some of the common frustrations we’ve heard from marketers in 2011, to direct you to some great tips from this past year’s most popular blog posts in hopes to help you overcome some of these challenges in 2012.

Top Five Marketing Frustrations of 2011:

1. I optimized my website for search engines when it launched. Why is it not ranking well now?

I know it seems totally unfair that Google, and other search engines, continue to change the rules on marketers. I mean they have the gall to switch things up on us without thinking about how much time went into our SEO planning or the cost and time associated with updating it. Well, unfortunately for us, Google and those other search engines don’t work for websites or the companies behind them – they work for consumers seeking goods, services or information online and who want faster, more relevant search results.

So, yes, if you’ve blinked over the past one to two years, you may have seen your organic search ranking slip right out from under you. So, what can you do to get it back?

First, don’t expect a quick fix. Although we’ll occasionally be asked to work with someone who is inadvertently doing something that search engines frown upon that we may be able to fix fairly quickly, the majority of cases can no longer be thought of as something you do quickly and one-time prior to launching a website.

Search Engine Optimization needs to be something that you work at all the time. Although that sounds like it could add more stress to your job, it isn’t so foreboding once you’ve developed a plan that prioritizes those elements that search engines like Google and Bing prioritize. I could go on and on to explain but you’ll learn way more from watching this great video that includes great SEO tips.

2. We have a Facebook page but our fan base isn’t growing fast enough and we aren’t sure if investing time in social media is worth it.

Not every brand will grow fans, friends or “likes” by the thousands on Facebook, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t successful if those they do get make meaningful connections. Those who are successful, have a few things in common. They:

Understand how consumers want to interact with brands in social channels. Consumers don’t mind hearing from brands now and then about special deals, exclusive events or even product benefits but they don’t want to hear the hard sell. And they don’t want brands to fill their news feed so that the status updates of friends and family are buried. There is an art and science (tip: review your Facebook Insights) to crafting appropriate, compelling messages on social channels. If your fanbase is not growing, you need to take a hard look at why you aren’t engaging your users. Are you using the right tone? Are you giving them information that provides a benefit/ value to them as individuals? Are you showing off your personality and exposing your business’ emotional side? Are you making them feel special for connecting with you? Are you giving them information they will want to pass along to their closest friends/family? For more tips, check out ‘Do they “Like” Like You?’ It’s Complicated on our blog.

Have a social media plan. They are proactive with strategies to observe social user behavior (note we didn’t say guide user behavior – that’s a big shift in thinking for some marketers) and understand that the conversation on Facebook or any other channel has to flow or move in a direction that moves that relationship toward your end goal in order to show a return on your investment (time or money). Strategic inspiration can often come from a brief look at some of the Common Social Media Strategy Archetypes.

For our clients, a social media plan consists of target definition, user behavior or social personas, objectives, intended success measurements, social channel tactics, content strategy with an editorial calendar, user engagement and sharing incentives, analytics integration, and resource assignments and tasks. This provides us with a game plan so that we know if something is working or if we’re going off track and something needs to be adjusted. And this is recommended for all types of businesses – not just retail. We have clients in healthcare, utilities and even banking who are finding ways to succeed in social marketing.

Use analytics to help measure success and calculate ROI. Unless you can conduct business on Facebook via a social shopping tool or something of the like, you are hoping your connection leads to business conducted with you somewhere else – in a store, online or via phone. You need to have a plan that helps you to determine whether the time spent managing social media strategies result in measured success.

With clearly defined objectives set, you can use online analytics tools to measure whether or not your social efforts are driving anything from traffic to goal completions. Check out these two posts for more information on how to set up your analytics Tracking On-Site Social Media Engagement with Google Analytics and Tracking Clicks from Social Media with Google Analytics. For the more adventurous data-based-marketers, Google’s Multi-Channel Analytics helps give your digital channel attributions credit.

3. I can access analytics for my digital assets and campaigns but I don’t have time to do anything with it.

This is one of the most common challenges we hear. It’s not surprising seeing how distributed or divided marketing has become – even just digital marketing. Digital strategies can no longer be lumped together as a line item that traditionally just includes your website. It’s now an entire network of devices, assets, websites and channels that each needs their own strategies and measurement methods. Because of this, marketing executives often collect analytical data without having the time or resources available to look at it, nevermind do anything about it.

I’m not going to say there is an easy fix for this but I will stress the importance and the impact that either finding the time to evaluate, test and tweak your strategies or hiring a digital marketing agency to do it for you could make to the bottom line.

Often the largest conversion increases come from some of the most seemingly simple and small usability changes. This means, testing – even just a little bit – can make (and save) you a significant amount of money – thus allowing you to squeeze every last bit of ROI out of your investment.

4. I probably should be preparing a mobile strategy but not that much of our traffic comes through mobile devices.

Yet. If you aren’t sure whether or not your business would be impacted if you’re site isn’t mobile optimized (or at the very least mobile friendly), let me tell you that the answer is yes. To refresh your memory on how to find out exactly how much mobile traffic you are getting now, read Are You Losing Business to iPhones and Androids? a blog post from January 2011. And, if you looked into it back in January when this post originally ran, run the report again now – you’ll see it’s grown exponentially in just a year’s time.

There are several ways to keep your mobile and tablet users happy. If you don’t have time to put together a mobile strategy, I recommend you hire a consultant to help. The more time that goes by, the more you risk frustrating busy customers and consumers and handing them over to your competition.

Mobile-friendly sites function across common mobile devices, even if it is the desktop experience squeezed into a four inch screen. The site is device friendly in that it won’t ‘break’, but neither the user experience nor results are optimal.
Mobile-optimized sites feature a user experience and design that feels native to mobile devices designed for smaller screens, such as touches instead of clicks and the slower download speeds of 3G networks over your home broadband connection. Not only does it work for the phone, it works for the user.
Device Agnostic Design, also called ‘fluid design’ or ‘adaptive design,’ uses a combination of design sensibilities and web technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3 to create a design that feels as optimized on your desktop as it does from your phone or tablet by being literally flexible to fit your 22 inch monitor, 10.1 inch tablet or 4 inch smartphone.
Mobile Apps offer extensive flexibility in capability and greater access to mobile phone capabilities such as cameras, accelerometers, GPS and more. The downside? App development is often an expensive process, and few app types can be developed in such a way to be easily accessible to iPhone, Android, Blackberry and WebOS users alike. However, with the advance of HTML5, many apps, especially ‘utility’ apps, can be created as mobile optimized, device agnostic content rather than more expensive, less accessible apps.

5. We have data everywhere. Customers get aggravated when our systems don’t talk to each other.

When security and privacy is a concern, signing into a website with your own user name and password brings a bit of comfort. But, when you find yourself constantly entering your login credentials for each task, your value for security can quickly give way to frustration.

The problem tends to stem from a combination of 3^rd party systems strung together like a yard full of Christmas lights with a single blinking bulb. The log in can turn an otherwise beautiful experience into a teeth grinding memory. In many cases, these systems can work more effectively with each other to make your user experience smoother, faster and generally more enjoyable without risking security.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, having your own login system may not even be necessary. For blogs, ecommerce and certain membership sites, Facebook Connect integration allows your users to sign in into your service using their own social media connections. For your customer, it reduces the need for memorizing login credentials. For your site, it allows you to use some of the customers social media profile and connection data to offer more personalized information, offers and communication.

Looking for a team of experts to help you with your own marketing frustrations? For over 16 years, the professionals at SilverTech have been helping brands make the most of their marketing budget with effective digital marketing strategies, web design and development and advanced system integrations. Feel free to contact us, or jot a note or question in the comments below.

Here’s to a successful frustration-free 2012!