What beliefs might lie behind clients' reluctance to invest more aggressively in digital marketing? Read on to find out.

In my last article, I suggested that the future for digital marketing is rosy, but certain hurdles to digital marketing investment do exist. Here, I suggest 13 investment barriers that the agencies in our network discuss with their clients and try to address. (I won't be telling you how we do that!).

Most CMOs in Asia-Pacific are probably aware that digital marketing has huge potential for them today and in the future. Most have some level of digital investment on their media plans today -- but as a rule, the investment is small and focuses on simple, basic, online activity -- not yet embracing the rich mix of digital marketing vehicles with any enthusiasm.

What might be the perceptual drivers here? What beliefs or suspicions might be fuelling scepticism and reluctance to invest more aggressively in digital marketing amongst CMOs in Asia?

1. Digital is bewildering
   What we are hearing: "I grew up in a pre-digital world. I am not a digital native. My knowledge and understanding of all things digital is acquired in what little time I have to devote to learning about it. And digital marketing evolves at a rapid pace, making it hard to keep up with developments. If I'm really honest, I have to confess to a very low comfort level in the digital space."
   
   
2. Digital is avant garde
   What we are hearing: "It may be cutting edge, fashionable or sexy, but digital marketing still occupies a niche, operating at the margins of the marketing universe. I can't deny it has a role, but perhaps digital evangelists are getting ahead of themselves."
   
   
3. Digital is too complicated
   What we are hearing: "I get it -- digital marketing is a beautiful thing. But it's highly complex to implement. How should search, display, websites, social and mobile programs fit together? And how do I connect all that to an e-commerce platform? How do I know how much to spend? How do I tackle the need for new policies, procedures, systems, processes, roles and responsibilities.  I'm glad I have my toe in the water, but it's too daunting to jump right in."
   
   
4. Digital is high maintenance
   What we are hearing: "In the good old-fashioned off-line world, a fixed budget bought a fixed inventory. I know what I am buying and how much it costs. I produce a great piece of content and pump it out. Job done. But digital marketing appears to require constant attention -- it has a life of its own and it needs managing. And the creative content needs constant tweaking, not to mention the localisations and versions, etc., etc., etc."
   
   
5. Digital is a licence to bring chaos to my brand
   What we are hearing: "Digital only works if I achieve audience engagement and participation -- and that's great -- but if I'm not careful, the audience can take control of the agenda and hijack my brand. With digital marketing, I risk losing control."
   
   
6. Digital lacks scale
   What we are hearing: "When my brand is on TV, people sit up and pay attention -- they know I mean business. The audience listens, the retailers take note (and my buddies at the club/pub/bar are definitely impressed). Digital marketing is too fragmented, there's no critical mass, no 'shock and awe', no impressive body language -- it all takes place in the privacy of a computer screen.  When digital marketing packs the same punch as a great advertising campaign, I'll start spending big bucks on it, but not before. Give me a great TVC, any day."
   
   
7. Digital is hard to measure
   What we are hearing: "I get more data out of my digital marketing activity than I know what to do with -- but is it good data? I can learn all about how traffic gets to my website. But then the data set changes for activity on the site. How do I control and manage the funnel when the data doesn't fit together. And don't get me started on click-fraud."
   
   
8. Digital requires investment
   What we are hearing: "I'm worried about having to invest in lots of technology -- servers and that kind of thing. And if I do invest in it, it'll only become obsolete after a few weeks! But it's not just the technology investment I'm worried about -- I'm also concerned that I'll have to invest in the creation of digital advertising assets. I read that advertisers should create a range of assets and offers to test -- surely that costs money? And I'm also reading that the best assets are highly interactive -- even featuring video!! That must cost a fortune and I believe that most people don't have the bandwidth to look at that type of content anyway -- so I'm throwing my money down the drain immediately."
   
   
9. People don't trust digital
   What we are hearing: "I read about privacy issues and spamming and phishing. I think most people are cynical about digital marketing and don't trust it -- I'm going stick to traditional methods."
   
   
10. You can't get reach with digital
    What we are hearing: "In addition to the impact issues mentioned above, I don't think we can get reach with digital media. It's just impossible to target volume audiences. And to make matters worse, there's hardly any research on audiences in Asia -- I'm simply not convinced people are online (and don't know where there are if they are online)."
    
    
11. People don't click on digital
    What we are hearing: "I've read that only 0.002 percent of banner advertising gets clicked on. That means that nearly 99.98 percent of people will never click on my ads!! What a waste of money -- I'm simply not prepared to put budget into an activity that is ignored by a majority of people. And to make matters worse, I think that online advertising is far too intrusive -- too interruptive. If people go to a website, they want to read the content on the site -- they don't want to be taken elsewhere."
    
    
12. Digital does not work with other media
    What we are hearing: "I simply can't see the connection between my TV commercials and my website. I don't believe that people would write down a URL featured on my normal advertising and then visit my website in their own time. People tell me that the best advertising is integrated and that consumers simultaneously consume many types of media, but to me, it all feels far too disjointed."
    
    
13. In Asia no one buys anything online
    What we are hearing: "Yes, so people may research products online, but in Asia, people are simply not buying anything via ecommerce. I think this is a problem. If I can build awareness by using online media, then great -- but people will forget my brand by the time they visit the store."

Here's a suggestion.  Today -- sit your client-facing teams down and ask them to consider how they'd react to the above list of typical client objections. As we've done, compile an array of rational, fact and case-study based answers in response. Do this and you'll soon see more budget moving online.

Mark Cripps is regional digital director at MRM Worldwide and McCann Worldgroup.