Despite the growing popularity of social media and digital marketing, many people and companies in general remain skeptical about the efficacy and safety of implementing these platforms. Yet, even among its biggest proponents, social media is often cited as a change in information delivery that may not be tangibly profitable due to its free-sharing nature. Of course, there are countless digital advertising opportunities, but those also have been reported to have varied success rates (for both advertisers and the host sites.)

The leading voices in social media understand the benefits of social media, yet don’t fundamentally view social media as being profitable – or even to have measurable results of any kind due to its often anonymous nature. This is a problem – at least for business adoptions of online marketing. Without a way to reasonably measure return on investment, there remains a giant hurdle for companies wanting to diversify their marketing, but unwilling to invest in something that is not likely to post any likely returns.

It's important to consider this when implementing online marketing. When possible, open and response rates of things like email should be closely tracked. That same diligence should also be used in other mediums such as social media and even through employing search engine optimization strategies. Online marketing may be incredibly cost effective compared to direct or telemarketing, but if not of increasing leads or brand recognition then it might be wasted among a target base that is flooded with online marketing messages daily.