Here’s what has changed about Digital Marketing and sustainability. 

The Digital Basics Are Non-Negotiable 

No matter what, your digital basics must be in place, and proactively managed, if you want a high return on investment from your campaigns. Period. And here’s the problem: Most of the campaigns running today are failing to manage all of the fundamentals, together. Your digital footprint isn’t just about launching vendors and campaigns with ads; it’s about actively managing every component of your presence online. That’s why we coined the term Digital Footprint—because it must be managed all the time to sustain your ROI. If you don’t, even the best campaigns will decline over time.  This is why you have vendors that peak, swing up and down along with fall off. 

But when you do manage it properly, you’ll start seeing which campaigns improve over 30, 60, or 90 days, and ideally sustain over 12-24 month periods—and which ones don’t. And that’s where the real work begins. 

The Formula That Makes or Breaks Your Campaigns 

At Source Local Media, we don’t just run campaigns—we break down why they succeed or fail. It all comes down to a simple imperative (Digital Basics) plus a formula, our Bullseye Marketing Method formula: 

Target + Messaging + Reach = Results 

If your campaign isn’t delivering, it’s because something in this formula is broken, combined with your Digital Basics Framework as changed or shifted without you realizing it.   We all know that the online algorithm change and market dynamics do too just as much.  Heck, your internal operations shift as well, right?  And here’s the harsh truth: The vendors you’re working with today aren’t solving this problem from this perspective, so neither are you. They’re running fragmented efforts without managing your entire digital footprint the way we illustrate in our Digital Basics Lite framework.  We know this because we watch and deploy 1000s of campaigns while measuring RESULTS of all of them.  This market is complicated – so the solution must be just as dynamically adaptive. 

Where Are Your Vendors Falling Short? 

Here’s a simple test: Take an image of your digital footprint (like the one in Source Local Media Digital Basics Lite), and start circling what each of your vendors actually manages alongside what you manage. 

• Are you managing all of this right now in some manner? 

• Do you have one vendor managing it all? Highly unlikely. 

• Are you at least considering all of this right now? 

• Are your vendors communicating with each other to optimize results? Doubtful. 

• Is someone overseeing the entire digital footprint to hold every vendor channel accountable? Probably not. 

• Would you like to have this power and capability one way or another? 

This is where most businesses fail. They expect a performance campaign to work in isolation, without ensuring that YOUR INTERNAL overall digital presence is structured to support it. That’s why your results are inconsistent. 

The Key to Winning in Today’s Market 

Here’s the shift that must happen: 

• You must adopt the mindset that your entire Digital Footprint has to be managed at all times in tune with your best ways to connect and book business with new customers. 

• You must measure your Digital Footprint consistently and also constantly evaluate your Bullseye Marketing Method: Target + Messaging + Reach = RESULTS. 

• You must identify which parts of your Digital Footprint needs the most focus—and hold YOUR TEAM and/or your vendors accountable, accordingly, in concert with this approach. 

When you do this consistently, you’ll see where to optimize your efforts, where to adjust your vendors’ focus, and where the real opportunities lie. This is what separates businesses that win from those that keep running in circles, in today’s environment. 

Next Steps: Take Control of Your Digital Footprint 

If you want real performance, start managing your digital basics the right way. Check out Source Local Media’s Digital Basics Lite to see how it all connects—and start making the changes that will actually drive ROI. 

Ideal Image for This Post 

A visual representation of a Digital Footprint—a structured diagram showing various digital marketing elements (SEO, social, paid ads, email, website, reputation management) with circles indicating vendor responsibility. The point? No single vendor manages it all—you need oversight to make it work. 

This isn’t theory. It’s what works today. Start managing your entire digital presence, and your campaigns will start delivering the results you expect.