Digital Marketing Objectives Review

Post setting up the high-level digital objectives, a firm in one of the digital presence states, also needs to create in a parallel a sound ‘digital objectives review plan’ and adhere by it on a regular basis to measure progress. A typical marketing objectives review consists of activities that involve monitoring, evaluating, and controlling marketing activities continuously. According to Philip Kotler, there are four types of marketing controls needed by companies to monitor and review their marketing activities:

1. Annual plan control
2. Profitability control
3. Efficiency control
4. Strategic control

Let us understand these four control types specifically for digital marketing objectives:

1. Annual plan control: It involves reviews to ensure that firms achieve the targets set for sales, market share, and other such financial goals set up across the key digital channels. This is conducted through a four-step management by objectives process which includes:
   • Setting monthly or quarterly goals
   • Monitoring the digital performance
   • Determining causes for key performance deviations
   • Develop rectifying actions to be back on course
2. Profitability control: It involves understanding the digital channels where the company is making profits and those where it is losing out. Profitability is measured across products, territories, customer segments, and business to business (B2B) channels. The company has to follow similar profitability models as it does for traditional sales to ensure that they are not investing in assets and platforms which are not profitable.
3. Efficiency control: Post annual plan and profitability control, marketers have a much better idea on how best they can improve spending and allocate resources and efforts to channels which might yield them more efficient results. This would include performing a rigorous financial analysis, optimally re-allocating budgets, measuring channel and communication efficiencies, and revising promotional budgets.
4. Strategic control: It involves periodically re-assessing a firm’s strategic approach through market effectiveness reviews, strategic re-orientation, operation efficiency analysis, and digital marketing audits across all key products and markets.

Apart from these high-level objectives review, we would also see in the upcoming chapters how firms are involved with tactical, campaign, and sub-process specific reviews at each small stage of the digital marketing process, thus, supporting the overall marketing objectives.