How to reach your digital marketing goals – think kombucha

I’m fond of kombucha. You know, the tart, effervescent beverage that you can find at most grocery stores nowadays. It’s expensive though, and my new addiction was starting to bite into my pocketbook. As a potential solution, my business partner and husband, David, bought me a kit for my birthday so I could try brewing kombucha at home.

As I was stirring up my first batch, I was thinking about how digital marketing and kombucha are kind of alike. Have I lost you yet? I know. It may seem a like a bit of a stretch, but hear me out.

It’s a pretty cool process that centers around the SCOBY. SCOBY is an acronym that stands for: Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. The SCOBY brings the kombucha to life. Without it, your mixture is just sweetened tea. It’s not bad but it’s definitely not kombucha.

Like brewing a batch of kombucha, your digital marketing plan starts out with a main goal. Think of this as the mother or SCOBY. The goal with my last batch of kombucha was to create a brew with a subtle essence of lavender and delicate floral notes. Your main goal for your marketing plan may be to improve online donations or create an engaged community that returns to your site regularly.

Similar to kombucha, your initial digital marketing goals are then influenced by the environment, additional ingredients and attention. They are also both very much alive and constantly evolving.

How can you cultivate your kombucha or rather, your digital marketing, so you can achieve the results you want?

Good ingredients

Nothing but the best will do. If you’re going through the effort of brewing a beverage that takes weeks to develop, don’t scrimp on your ingredients. Use this same approach for executing your marketing plan. Be sure to stay up-to-date with current marketing tactics and implement them as you do your best work. Like good ingredients, this will shape what you get in the end.

pH Levels - The perfect balance

When you’re making kombucha it’s vital to test and monitor pH levels in order for you to end up with a tasty tea. Brewing kombucha is probably not a good fit for an impatient person. It takes days or even several weeks (depending on your taste preferences). Over this period, you should check the temperature, pH balance and taste your brew to check on how it’s progressing.

The same holds true for your digital marketing campaigns, once you’ve created and executed your strategy, it’s paramount that you regularly track your progress. Marketing goals need to be measured and regularly reviewed. Google Analytics should be your best friend during this time. Get some free help here. A specific place to look throughout your process, is in Goals. Creating conversions goals will allow you to track progress. It’s also effective to run A / B testing so you can continually improve your campaign’s performance.

Attention

Like anything in life, the attention you give to something brings it to life and impacts its success. At ArcStone, we often talk about how digital design and marketing doesn’t work if you fall into “the one and done” rushed approach. Just like batch of kombucha, effective digital marketing campaigns require a sustainable, long-term view that evolves and adapts to exceed your online goals.