Social Media Marketing and Your Online Marketing Budget

Bob DeStefano over at SVM E-Business Solutions offers a great checklist that you should go through before deciding to jump into social media marketing. He says you should be able to say yes to all of these statements before you think about using social media to market your products and services:

• My Website is my most powerful marketing tool.
• My Website generates all of the leads I need to support my business.
• My company is on the first page of Google for every popular phrase my customers use.
• Email marketing helps my company nurture new customers and generate repeat business
• I know that I am generating a strong return on investment for every dollar I spend on marketing.

This checklist covers most everything you should be thinking about when it comes to online marketing. Where I differ with Bob is in timing: There is no reason that you should not work on your website and your social media marketing in parallel, provided your strategic objectives are clear and inform both efforts.

One objection to this line of thought might be budgetary: you want to establish ROI on your website effort before committing more of your marketing budget to extend your online effort. Such an objection indicates a reasonable and cautious attitude, but you need to weigh your caution against the exponential potential of integrating your website, email marketing and social media marketing.