Short Term vs Long Term Marketing Goals
Strategic marketing is vital for business success in every industry. Whether you own a dentistry clinic or a construction firm, you should spend time and effort developing a marketing plan that appeals to your target audience and draws people to your establishment.
What is a Short-Term Marketing Strategy?
When you consider how to acquire “quick wins” for your organization, a short-term marketing strategy is often what comes to mind. This technique includes making daily, weekly, or even monthly attempts to achieve “short-term” goals. A tactical approach is used in short-term marketing strategy to achieve objectives that are close at hand.
Marketing initiatives with a short lifespan are those that only temporarily increase sales and traffic. Any firm has to have immediate success. Short-term success is essential for long-term growth, whether you are a startup searching for investment or a firm trying to effectively launch a new product or service.
Short-Term Marketing Activities
- Search Engine Advertisement – Using Search Engine Advertising(SEA) you may immediately display your paid search advertisements among the search results on different search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, thanks to search engine advertising.
- Social Media Marketing – Social Media Marketing or Paid social is the practice of putting sponsored advertising material on social networking sites operated by third parties with the aim of attracting a certain audience. Paid social is frequently used in short-term marketing plans to improve marketing effectiveness and reach new client segments.
- Pay Per Click(PPC) – Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising lets you pay a fee to have your ad appear on other websites. Your ad appears in the form of a shopping ad, video ad, banner ad, or in other formats. When a user clicks on an ad it takes them to your website. This allows you to drive traffic to your website, and you will only be charged if someone clicks on them.
When should you invest in a Short-Term Marketing Strategy?
In case you are just starting out, or your business needs to generate sales or leads quickly I would recommend harvesting the benefits of short-term marketing.
What is a Long-Term Marketing Strategy?
Your long-term marketing plan should include the “big picture” of what you want to accomplish with your marketing activities. Normally, your long-term marketing plan will be in place for at least six months. Long-term marketing objectives are achieved by a comprehensive, ongoing marketing plan that incorporates short-term goals.
Remember that you’re in a marathon, not a sprint while developing a long-term marketing strategy. Although it may be annoying or perplexing to not get results right away, an effective long-term marketing approach will yield positive returns.
Long-Term Marketing Activities
- Content Marketing – Content marketing is a marketing strategy used to attract, engage, and retain an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other media. This approach establishes expertise, promotes brand awareness, and keeps your business top of mind when it’s time to buy what you sell.
- SEO – Search engine optimization(SEO) refers to the process of making changes to your website to make it more visible when users search for goods or services associated with your company on Google, Bing, and other search engines. The more visible your pages are in search results, the more likely it is that you’ll get noticed and draw both new and returning clients to your company.
- Social Media Maintenance – Creating a posting schedule that offers your followers value is a key component of social media maintenance. You can simultaneously build a stronger relationship with your customers and reach a new audience by creating and sharing content on your social media profiles.
- Public relations – Public Relations is “a strategic communication process that develops connections between corporations and their publics that are mutually advantageous.” In essence, public relations professionals look after a company’s reputation and public image. They assist the organization in communicating with the general public and attempt to foster a good rapport between the two.
When should you invest in a Long-Term Marketing Strategy?
If your business has the luxury of not requiring instant sales or leads, in that case, I would recommend investing in long-term activities.
What’s the Difference Between Long-Term and Short-Term Marketing Strategy?
The difference between long-term and short-term marketing strategies lies in the processes and goals involved in the two.
Since short-term marketing is all about getting results immediately, it is ideal for those who want to advertise a new product, invite people to an event, or swiftly generate new leads. On the other hand, long-term marketing focuses on long-term objectives. While investing in long-term marketing activities won’t provide benefits right away, it can end up being considerably more affordable than short-term marketing in the long run.
How to Find the Right Mix of Short-Term & Long-Term Marketing Goals?
It varies from business to business and from situation to situation, but my general recommendation would be to invest same amount of resources in both. Short-term results will keep producing results until your long-term plans don’t kick in. Once your long-term marketing starts producing results you can gradually decrease the resources for the short term and focus more on long-term goals.
Authors:
Alex is a co-founder of a digital marketing agency. His specialty is in overall digital marketing strategy, social media advertising, search engine advertising, search engine optimization, and conversion rate optimization.
Milica Gubecka is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of a digital marketing agency. She has been leading the design department for several years. Milica has good experience working directly in account management, both B2B and B2C. Her specialization is in creating beautiful creatives, high-converting landing pages, and practical UX solutions.
