Digital Marketing, Search Engine Optimization - 6 Aug 2024

Top 10 Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Nobody’s perfect, but when it comes to your digital marketing, you sure want to get as close as possible while avoiding missteps that could be dragging you down.

Digital marketing is one of the most important growth tools available to businesses today. Yet many small businesses fail to fully take advantage of digital channels to drive growth, instead relying on conventional advertising, print ads, and word of mouth.

Ignoring digital marketing is actually the biggest marketing mistake you can make. Regardless of whether you run a tech startup or a local dry cleaner, your customers are looking for you online. Over 75% of consumers search for a business online before stepping foot in-store, and that number is growing exponentially. Your competitors are marketing themselves online; if you’re not engaging, you’re falling behind.

Mistake #1: Lack of Direction

Failing to set specific objectives that support your long-term goals is one of the most common causes of wasted resources and unproductive campaigns. The solution? Be SMART.

Everyone loves a good acronym, especially marketers. Broken down, a SMART marketing plan should be:

• Specific: Clearly define a specific target. For example, “increase website conversion rate by 10%” versus “increase sales”
• Measurable: Quantify how you measure progress or success
• Achievable: Set realistic goals that are within your capacity to accomplish given the resources you have available
• Relevant: Select goals that align with your overall business objectives
• Time-Bound: Set a deadline for your goals to create a sense of urgency and keep your team motivated

Without clear objectives, it’s easy to get lost and lose focus on what you’re trying to accomplish. Setting clear goals, a timeline, and metrics for measuring results will help keep you on the right track.

Mistake #2: Ignoring SEO

SEO is, and remains, the foundation of any effective digital marketing strategy It’s what signals search engines and tells them “Hey, I’m here and I have what you’re looking for!”. If your website isn’t optimized for search engines it will act as an anchor, dragging down all your digital marketing efforts.

So before embarking on your digital marketing journey, make sure your website is ready by following basic SEO best practices like:

• Identifying and using the right keywords
• Creating relevant content
• Optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and headers
• Leveraging internal linking
• Building quality backlinks

Mistake #3: Producing Generic Content

We get it; coming up with original, captivating content regularly is a lot of work. However, you are not doing your business any favours by producing bland messaging just for the sake of filling blank spaces.

Not everyone is going to be your target customer, and that’s ok. The key to creating successful content is by first developing your target buyer persona. This fictional representation of your ideal customer should include everything from a demographic and psychographic profile to behaviour trends, values, pain points, and interests.

Once you have this profile, you can get to work developing a digital marketing strategy that will appeal to that specific audience, greatly increasing your odds of converting targets into customers.

Mistake #4: Failing to Leverage Social Media

More than ever, social media is becoming a key engagement channel, particularly with younger millennial and Gen Z audiences. With the average user spending 28% of their time online on social media, this is a key opportunity for businesses to reach, engage, and grow their audiences while building brand awareness.

To leverage social media marketing correctly first determine which platforms make sense for your business based on the audience you’re targeting. From there you can work on creating relevant and engaging content for that audience. Keep in mind, consistency is key with social media marketing; it’s not easy to stay on top of people’s news feeds so make a posting schedule and stick to it for the best results.

Mistake #5: Thinking Email Marketing is No Longer Relevant

A question that keeps popping up year after year in online forms is whether email marketing is still relevant and effective. The response is a resounding yes! Despite being nearly as old as email itself, email marketing has continued to grow and evolve showing that it has staying power. In fact, with an average ROI of $40 per dollar spent, email marketing is one of the best bang-for-your-buck digital marketing tools available.

Don’t make the mistake of missing out on low-hanging fruit. Tools like MailChimp make it easy to build and maintain subscriber lists and create email marketing campaigns targeting different segments based on whatever criteria you decide.

Mistake #6: Overlooking Video Content

Like it or not, video content is taking over traditional digital marketing channels. Over 90% of businesses and marketers say they now consider video content as a crucial part of their digital marketing strategy. Why? Because it works.

Video content has a click-through rate 65% higher than text content alone. What’s even more significant is that viewers will retain 95% of what they see in a video compared to 10% of what they read. The good news is that your video content doesn’t need to be long or overly complicated; short-form, straight-to-the-point videos are the most popular, and more than 80% watch their videos on silent.

Mistake #7: Focusing Too Much on Acquisition and Neglecting Retention

Small businesses tend to focus a lot of attention on expanding their customer base. New customer acquisition is critically important to sustaining a growing business, however, too often this focus on growth comes at the expense of customer retention.

Depending on your industry, the average cost of customer acquisition or CAC ranges from under $10 to more than $350. On the other hand, it costs a lot less to keep loyal customers and the benefit can be significant. Research shows that even a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by anywhere from 25% to 90%.

Mistake #8: Not Monitoring and Adjusting

In our first example of digital marketing mistakes to avoid we talked about the importance of setting clear goals and metrics for measuring results. Well, one of the biggest mistakes people make is not paying attention to the data that’s right in front of them.

Google Analytics offers a wealth of information about how your digital marketing initiatives are performing. From traffic source and returning visitors to bounce rate and conversion rate you can learn almost everything you need to know about your marketing success in a few clicks.

Once you have this information, evaluate it against the objectives you set; if you’re not reaching your target it’s a sign it’s time to adjust your strategy.

Mistake #9: Forgetting About Mobile Users

In 2024 there is no reason to have a website that’s not optimized for mobile browsing. Mobile usage has been growing exponentially over the last decade, and today over 60% of all web traffic originates from mobile devices. The ability to offer a seamless browsing experience for these mobile users is crucial to the success of any digital marketing strategy, otherwise, you could be alienating your largest target audience.

To create a more seamless mobile experience, focus on:

• A mobile-first design philosophy
• Fast load times
• Simplified navigation menus
• Streamlined checkout
• Concise copy
• Larger fonts

Mistake #10: Expecting Immediate Results

Good things come to those who wait, but when you’re anxiously waiting for your marketing efforts to pay off it’s hard to keep calm. Remember, digital marketing is targeting humans, and humans take time to make decisions, even impulsive ones. Expecting any marketing initiative to produce overnight success will only lead to frustration and disappointment.

Digital marketing works gradually. It takes time to build relationships and develop trust with your audience and sometimes it can take multiple interactions to produce any results. So, instead of focusing on immediate actions, focus on the objectives you outlined and the timeline you gave. Stick with your strategy as long as it makes sense, keep analyzing and tweaking your campaigns as needed, and eventually you’ll see your patience pay off.