--- title: "#fail Founder to founder, what NOT to do with your digital marketing" description: Times have changed, and so has the way businesses approach their customers. They say if you want to see improvements in your business or increase sales, you must engage in digital marketing.  image: https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/hubfs/Blogs%20(16-9)/marvin-meyer-SYTO3xs06fU-unsplash%20Cropped.jpg --- [![Bluechip_Logo](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/325503/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/Bluechip_Logo.svg "Bluechip_Logo")](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/) ![Search-9](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/hubfs/BlueChip%20website/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/Search-9.svg "Search-9") ![Close Icon (3)-1](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/hubfs/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/Close%20Icon%20(3)-1.svg "Close Icon (3)-1") This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. ** ![Close Icon (3)](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/325503/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/Close%20Icon%20(3).svg "Close Icon (3)") ##### Knowledge Shared # Insights ##### All Articles ![](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/hubfs/BlueChip%20website/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/down-filled-triangular-arrow.png) - [Financial Services (168)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/financial-services) - [Public Relations (133)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/public-relations) - [Marketing (111)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/marketing) - [Social Media (101)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/social-media) - [Integrated Marketing (87)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/integrated-marketing) - [Reputation Management (79)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/reputation-management) - [Crisis Management (61)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/crisis-management) - [Growth (46)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) - [Profile (41)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/profile) - [COVID-19 (40)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/covid-19) - [Protect (14)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/protect) - [BC Team (9)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/bc-team) - [Blog (7)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/blog) - [Leadership communication (6)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/leadership-communication) - [Cyber Security (3)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/cyber-security) - [Client In The News (2)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/client-in-the-news) [Client In The News](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/client-in-the-news) ### [Melos Sulicich shares SME success tips on Money News’ “Let’s Talk Business”](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/melos-sulicich-shares-sme-success-tips-on-money-news-lets-talk-business) Melos Sulicich, CEO of Bank of Sydney was interviewed by 2GB’s Money News "Let's Talk Business" segment with Scott Haywood. He shared tips for family-run businesses to make sure ev... [Client In The News](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/client-in-the-news) ### [Target hostile countries, not us, drug giant CSL tells Trump](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/target-hostile-countries-not-us-drug-giant-csl-tells-trump) This is an extract from an article written by Michael Smith and Jessica Gardner in The Australian Financial Review. Published on the 10th July 2025. “It is weighing on the share pr... - ##### [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) ## [#fail Founder to founder, what NOT to do with your digital marketing](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/fail-founder-to-founder-what-not-to-do-with-your-digital-marketing) ###### By Carden Calder ###### 04 Mar 2022 [Social Media](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/social-media) [Financial Services](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/financial-services) [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) ##### [Reaching High Net Worth Individuals Through Social Media Marketing in 2025](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/how-target-high-net-worth-individuals-social-media) [Public Relations](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/public-relations) [Reputation Management](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/reputation-management) [Crisis Management](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/crisis-management) ##### [The Science of Crisis Communication: Proactive and Reactive Strategies](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/proactive-and-reactive-crisis-communication-strategies) [Profile](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/profile) ##### [Affluence. Effluence. Influence. Do you know the difference?](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/affluence-effluence-influence-do-you-know-the-difference/) [Public Relations](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/public-relations) [Reputation Management](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/reputation-management) [Crisis Management](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/crisis-management) ##### [Introduction to Crisis Communication](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/introduction-to-crisis-communication) # Insights. [Back to all articles](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog) - Share - [![](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/hubfs/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/facebook.svg) ](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bluechipcommunication.com.au%2Fblog%2Ffail-founder-to-founder-what-not-to-do-with-your-digital-marketing) - [![](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/hubfs/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/linked%20in.svg) ](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/fail-founder-to-founder-what-not-to-do-with-your-digital-marketing) - [![](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/hubfs/Bluechip%20Assets/Images/twitter-1.svg) ](https://www.twitter.com/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bluechipcommunication.com.au%2Fblog%2Ffail-founder-to-founder-what-not-to-do-with-your-digital-marketing) Times have changed, and so has the way businesses approach their customers. They say if you want to see improvements in your business or increase sales, you must engage in digital marketing.  Traditional marketing has taken a step back, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of opportunities and growth, digital marketing can be highly beneficial to businesses.  “Fail fast” is fine in theory but I’d hate you to waste the same time and money I did when starting our digital marketing. Here are five mistakes we made, and that you can avoid, save time and money, and drive growth faster.  ### Acting on “fuct” rather than fact The single best thing you can do to keep yourself honest is to build a simple fact base: what you did, and what the result was. Building this, over time, is the [perfect antidote to the “feelings” and false assumptions (“fucts”)](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/welcome-to-2022-a-new-year-but-many-of-the-same-challenges-and-very-possibly-ever-growing-complexity) we and our clients sometimes use as a basis for our marketing, but that stop us from learning fast.  ### Tracking vanity metrics The amount of media articles you generate is a vanity metric, not a business one. Instead, we recommend, and we use, metrics like indexable words published per month, number of emails sent, readership metrics and database growth. We track these because they drive database growth and leads which in turn drive revenue. That’s the ultimate metric!   ### Creating too much content and not campaigning it enough We put waaaay too much of our overall thought leadership and marketing effort into the content creation process and too little into campaigning it. We’re in the financial services so it’s tempting to think you need constant new and clever content. Not true. About 80/20 to “campaign” versus “create” is probably right for most financial and professional services businesses under about $100m revenue.  ### Talking to ourselves not our target audiences Behavioural economics has plenty to say about how irrational most of us are as decision-making machines. This includes being terrible at predicting how others think. We’ve spent countless hours and too much money persisting with messages and channels (Twitter) we thought would be effective, and we found interesting. Our content wasn’t resonating with our audiences. We killed off the lower performance content, focussed on engaging a narrow group of target clients, and cut down the topic list. Life got easier.  ### Going soft when we should have gone hard It’s easy to wimp out at the tough choices but then your lack of courage will mean your digital marketing will be kind of… limp. We did this. When we scaled up our digital marketing we weren’t brave enough to eliminate a whole bunch of brands, like big banks, from our target market. Some clients just aren’t in our (or your) sweet spot in terms of relationship, results we can deliver, or the type of work we enjoy doing. It took me about 10 years too long to work this out.  When we did, we did less digital marketing and it delivered more leads.  Read the full story: [Let's Talk: 11 expert tips to nail your digital marketing efforts in 2022](https://dynamicbusiness.com/featured/lets-talk-11-expert-tips-to-nail-your-digital-marketing-efforts-in-2022.html) – Dynamic Business*. * ****If you’d like to discuss your strategic communication [call us](tel:+61290188600) or contact us***[***here***](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/speak-to-us-about-marketing)[***.***](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/speak-to-us-about-marketing)  * [![how to drive your fame agenda](https://hubspot-no-cache-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/537730/353fa2e0-53b3-407b-b7b3-d03aa771c86d.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/537730/353fa2e0-53b3-407b-b7b3-d03aa771c86d) [![New call-to-action](https://hubspot-no-cache-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/537730/b6d7db75-da4c-4d10-9e21-bd517dc50437.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/537730/b6d7db75-da4c-4d10-9e21-bd517dc50437) ## Related Posts [Integrated Marketing](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/integrated-marketing) [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) ###### 11 November 2024 #### [How Funds Under Management (FUM) Relies on Public Relations, Trust, and Strategic Communication for Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/how-fum-relies-on-public-relations-for-growth) [Social Media](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/social-media) [Financial Services](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/financial-services) [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) ###### 07 August 2024 #### [Democrat or Demobrat? How meme-driven Gen Z marketing reached US politics and why it works](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/demobrat-is-gen-z-marketing) [Social Media](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/social-media) [Financial Services](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/financial-services) [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) ###### 25 June 2024 #### [Reaching High Net Worth Individuals Through Social Media Marketing in 2025](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/how-target-high-net-worth-individuals-social-media) [Social Media](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/social-media) [Financial Services](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/financial-services) [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) ###### 19 June 2024 #### [The Dual Edge of Apple's AI Sword: Innovation and Implications](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/apple-intelligence-ai) [Integrated Marketing](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/integrated-marketing) [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) [Profile](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/profile) ###### 09 November 2023 #### [Mastering Lead Generation in Finance: The Critical Role of Digital PR](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/mastering-lead-generation-in-finance-the-critical-role-of-digital-pr) [Integrated Marketing](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/integrated-marketing) [Growth](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/growth) [BC Team](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/topic/bc-team) ###### 15 February 2022 #### [How to use Digital PR to generate high quality leads for financial services](https://www.bluechipcommunication.com.au/blog/how-to-use-digital-pr-to-generate-high-quality-leads-for-financial-services) ## Stay up to date ### Marketing insights you’ll want to read. 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