Over one third of Irish businesses do not have a digital marketing strategy, according to new research carried out by the Irish communications agency, Springboard PR & Marketing. A further 22% of respondents also admit that they are unaware if their organisation even has a digital marketing strategy.
The national index survey of over 400 Irish business professionals, which included business owners, senior management and marketing personnel, comes as Springboard PR & Marketing launch Spring3, its new digital content framework. Spring3 powers cohesive digital campaigns for Irish businesses across all sectors, by leveraging and amplifying owned, earned and paid online content.
Despite the majority of survey respondents either having no clear digital marketing strategy, or having no direct knowledge of one, over half state their top priority in digital marketing this year is content across their owned channels e.g. social media and website. This was followed by earned content (28%) such as reviews, guest articles and editorial coverage; and paid promotion (18%) through digital advertising.
The top challenge facing those surveyed is a lack of time to implement digital marketing activities (38%) while one quarter cite the fact they have no clear digital strategy. One in five say a shortage of trained staff is the most challenging factor in implementing their digital marketing.
According to Susie Horgan, managing director of Springboard PR & Marketing: “With no clear digital marketing strategy, businesses, who are already time-poor, will not see the maximum return on the time and energy invested in creating and promoting their content. This is particularly concerning given that almost a quarter of respondents never monitor their digital marketing analytics.
“As the business landscape becomes even more reliant on the digital sphere, organisations need to be seriously looking at an all-encompassing integrated strategy, combining owned, earned and paid. This is vital in order to achieve and exceed defined business goals and marketing objectives.”
The survey also found the top platform on which Irish businesses have created a profile is Facebook (75%). This is followed by Twitter (68%), LinkedIn (61%) and Instagram (41%). However, LinkedIn took the biggest drop when it came to the platforms that organisations actually use, with just 39% using it to regularly post, share and engage with others.
Over half of respondents see the biggest benefit of digital marketing as the promotion of their products and services. This was followed by lead generation and increased sales (32%) and attracting new talent (12%).
“The results of our survey show that Irish businesses are lacking the time, resources and know-how to effectively create, plan and implement their digital marketing activities across the channels that best suit their business needs,” says Horgan.
