Nearly 60% of all businesses use digital marketing to increase sales, but not all 60% use digital marketing correctly.
There are many ways your digital marketing strategy can fail and do the exact opposite of what you need it to.
But what can you do to ensure that your marketing budget isn’t wasted and that you don’t spend your time on marketing only to have it be entirely ineffectual?
Key Takeaways
- Don’t try to handle all aspects of digital marketing yourself – get help from experts in areas like SEO, PPC, and Google Ads if needed.
- Set realistic, achievable goals for your digital marketing efforts, such as increasing sales or leads by 10% in the next few months, rather than aiming for overnight success.
- Make sure you are targeting the right audience with your digital marketing – understand your ideal customer and focus your efforts on reaching them.
- Having a website is critical for digital marketing success – your website is your digital storefront.
- Optimize your website to provide a great user experience, be mobile-friendly, and make it easy for visitors to find what they need and take desired actions.
- Avoid inconsistent branding and messaging across your digital marketing channels – a consistent brand identity is essential for building trust and recognition.
Going It Alone
A big mistake for businesses is thinking they can go it alone and not get any outside help. While you don’t need to use digital marketing agencies for your entire marketing campaign, if you have no idea what you’re doing or don’t have the time, it can be good to outsource the parts you can’t do yourself. For example, you might be a wiz at creating engaging social media content to support your new coaching business, but you don’t know about digital marketing aspects such as SEO, PPC, Google Ads, etc. In this case, you can work on getting specific Digital Marketing for Coaches to avoid common mistakes and ensure your marketing budget is spent wisely for more significant results.
Not Being Social on Social Media
It doesn’t matter how unique your social media content is; if you’re not engaging with your audience and being social, you may not even bother. The clue is in the name, and neglecting to reply to comments and engage with other accounts or your followers will ensure that people aren’t going to continue engaging with your brand; instead, they will put their efforts into accounts that talk to them and answer queries or engage with their comments and replies.
So, suppose you’re creating content for social media. In that case, you need to be sure you can get online, reply to comments and reactions to your posts, and build a positive relationship with your audience to facilitate sales.
Not Defining Your Goals
Not defining what your goals are for your digital marketing campaign is a surefire way to ensure anything you do isn’t a success. If you don’t know what you want out of it, you cannot say it’s been a success, as you have nothing to measure it against. So before you even start to create your digital marketing campaign, you need to have realistic goals and a set of measurables to help you determine if it’s doing what you need it to do.
Having Unrealistic Goals
You will slowly get the results you want for your marketing campaign. That’s a given. Sometimes, there may be instant success, such as a viral video or an ad being reshared on social media. However, in many cases, having unrealistic expectations of success or expecting too much too soon will be your downfall.
Instead, you want to look at making your goals more achievable, be it increasing sales or leads by 10% in the next few months, bringing 10 more customers in the next 60 days, and so on. Set your KPIs, make them realistic, and work towards them with your digital marketing efforts to ensure they are successful.
Targeting The Wrong Audience
Targeting or not knowing the wrong audience will make your campaign fail. You cannot have success if you aren’t advertising to people who want what you sell or need what you do. You need to define your customers, who they are, their pain points, where you fit in, what you can offer, and more to ensure that you target the right people for increased success.
You can’t just send out a campaign to anyone and everyone; it could be more effective and will only be successful in wasting your budget.
Not Having a Website or Blog
Your website is your digital storefront, and if you don’t have one or an effective and easy-to-use website, then you can kiss your chances of a triumphant digital marketing campaign goodbye. Once you attract people via your marketing efforts, you need to direct them to a website that allows them to do what you need: make a purchase, read a blog post, sign up for a newsletter, etc.
Also, a blog on your website will give people all the information they need on your business, your identity, what you do, and more. It allows them to gather more information and resolve issues or queries without contacting anyone. Not having this available can be off-putting and undo all your hard work thus far.
Essential Industry Insights for Further Reading
- 16 Common Digital Marketing Mistakes To Avoid In 2023: Forbes Agency Council shares insights on common digital marketing pitfalls and how to steer clear of them.
- 7 Digital Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Money: Neil Patel, a renowned digital marketing expert, discusses costly digital marketing errors and provides actionable advice for improvement.
- 10 Digital Marketing Mistakes & How to Avoid Them: Search Engine Journal offers a comprehensive guide on identifying and avoiding common digital marketing missteps to optimize your strategies.