The first question you should be asking is: “Is digital marketing even part of my plan?” If the answer is yes, continue to read on. If it is no, then you should still continue to read. Expanding your knowledge never hurt!

Digital marketing has grown tremendously with the age of social media and millennials. With millions of people using social media such as Facebook or Twitter, leveraging those would be a great place to start. While I don’t have the secret sauce for success, here are 4 tips I have learned through my journey on how you can improve your digital marketing efforts.

Be patient

Any successful business owner can attest to this as “success does not happen overnight”. Whether you are an intern or a CMO of a fortune 500 company, we have all started somewhere. We understand it takes many sleepless nights and hard work to get where we want to be both in our careers and life.

Don’t be discouraged if your digital marketing efforts are not producing the results you anticipated right away. If you are a startup just getting your feet wet, then you are in for the long haul. Test out different techniques to tailor your content to your target market. You may have multiple demographics you are targeting but focus on one to begin with and then expand. This process will take months to establish as you will be monitoring changes and comparing. Understand the trends and don’t freak out if your leads drop one month then shoot up the next. If that is the case ask yourself, “what changes did I make? Or what did I differently?”.

Have a marketing plan

Be the man (or woman) with a plan! What good is it if you don’t have a marketing plan to guide your efforts and structure your goals. Stop what you’re doing now and ask yourself if your company has a marketing plan in writing. It is always good to revisit your market as a reminder what you should be doing and if your work is aligning with it.

Your marketing plan should be your blueprint for your team. The How, what, when, etc. to your marketing. Understand these questions will help improve the team cohesion as everyone will be on the same page rather than having 2 people doing contradictory campaigns.

Pay to play

Now I am not advocating for overspending on employees but rather be prepared to pay the price that quality demands. Hard working people are out there but don’t be too cheap to pass up on them. Startups and bootstrapping companies will have different budgets than a big company like Adobe or Cisco so finding the right balance between experience and pay may be a bit of a longer process. Setting a budget for a desired position with some wiggle room is best as you may come across someone who is overqualified for the position but is willing to work with your salary. Typically, the more experience and qualifications the more you will be paying. So keep a look out and see what your company is looking for.

Trust the process

As I started above, success does not happen overnight. In living by that motto trusting the process must also be apart of it. Trust what your marketing plan, have trust in your marketing manager, and most importantly your company. Whether you own your own business or are working for a company, have trust in the direction they are going. Why be on a boat if you know it is going to sink? Believe in the work you are producing along with the others who are contributing to the overall success.

Whether you like to accept it not, digital marketing has paved the new way for marketing. Stay updated on the latest trends and how you can improve your strategy. Marketing is constantly changing and people are always changing. Try to stay one step ahead of the game to keep your company relevant.