Here are 10 indicators that your marketing strategy is a success:

1. You know what your business needs to succeed

You are completely aware of what your business and marketing objectives are and have been upfront in communicating them with your marketing. You've been upfront about product launches, seasonal offers, offline marketing and any other marketing efforts that directly affect your digital marketing.

2. You place great value on your business digital presence

From your website to your social channels and all other digital platforms and presence your business has, you know this is important and have a dedicated resource who handles your website social media and marketing.

3. You have learned how to adapt to the current times

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it's being resilient and flexible in marketing and product offering. Over the years, businesses have slowly started adapting to digital technologies, but COVID-19 fast-tracked this process and forced businesses to adapt to digital innovations.

So, if your business has adapted to this global pandemic with a digital offering, don't abandon it as lockdown measures are eased.

4. You understand, value and invest in digital marketing

Regardless of the size of your business, you know that digital marketing is essential for its success, so you invest in it. You understand that it's possibly one of the only measurable forms of marketing available to you.

5. You understand that marketing is a full-time career

While you may be an expert in your field, you understand that you can't possibly manage your full-time job and manage to do all your marketing yourself. So, you are happy to outsource this to an expert.

By doing this, you are able hold someone else who is an expert in marketing, accountable for your marketing, while you are running your business.

6. You are seeing measurable and valuable results

This might start slow at first, however after three months of a complete marketing strategy and implementation you should start seeing results. A good marketing agency will actually map out benchmarks of success, so you will know if the results you are seeing are actually good enough for that month, quarter or year.

7. You understand that to make money, you need to spend money

Sure, there is a minimum spend on some digital marketing channels and you can start with this minimum spend until you start seeing results. But there also is a big difference between minimum spend per platform and a minimum spend so you are actually competing with your direct digital competitors.

Again, a good rule is that if you are financially limited, stick to one digital channel and do that really well. Once you start seeing results, you can up your paid media spend to actually enable your business to stand a chance to compete in your market.

You also know when it's time to pull the plug on efforts that are not working and try something else.

8. You keep close tabs on your competitors

Sometimes your biggest competitor isn't as active or doesn’t have the biggest online presence, so your online competitor could be someone completely different. You are aware of competitors that are aggressively marketing online and you're paying close attention to inventive and strong marketing strategies they are implementing.

9. You have benchmarks of success per channel

You have benchmarks of success per channel, which indicate rough estimates on what your marketing spend will buy you per channel. This includes KPIs (key performance indicators) that are worked out on monthly, quarterly and yearly goals.

You know each month is different, that seasonal changes, new product launches and changes in the economy can influence your marketing's performance. However, you are generally able to meet your monthly benchmarks of success.

10. You are happy to invest time each month to look at your progress

You take the time to meet with your marketing resource (monthly, at the very least) to discuss the month's performance, including what worked, what didn't, key learnings going forward and important points on your competitors. You also discuss upcoming marketing pushes and key focusses for the coming months.

For more information, visit www.arcinteractive.co. You can also follow Arc Interactive on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.