Understanding the 10 things you should never do when implementing your digital marketing strategy is critical. Social media platforms, electronic fax, and e-mail – these are just some examples of the rapid advances in modern technology that make it difficult to keep track of the best practices of digital marketing. To help your small business succeed, we have outlined practices you should avoid when it comes to your digital marketing strategy. By avoiding these common mistakes you can help ensure your small business executes an effective digital marketing strategy.
- Failing to identify your target audience.
Identifying your target audience will help ensure the rest of your marketing strategy falls into place. Once you identify who you are selling to it will be easier to determine tactics you can implement to reach them.
- Not having a strategy at all.
Many people make the terrible mistake of not creating a digital marketing strategy at all. As a business owner, without a digital media strategy you may have a general idea of what you’d like to accomplish, but do not have tailored, well-defined tactics to help you reach your goals. Creating a strategy is crucial to keeping you on track towards achieving your objectives and growing your small business.
- Forgetting about mobile users.
It has been found that Americans spend an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes on their phones every day. Make sure to keep mobile users in mind when creating your digital marketing strategy to avoid missing out on potential customers. Mobile optimization for each marketing tactic is key for turning mobile website visitors into customers.
- Rejecting SEO.
It’s easy to get lost among the millions of search engine results. Although many people seem to think search engine optimization is dead, it is actually more important now than it ever was. As competition continues to grow SEO is critical to building a web presence and putting yourself above competitors.
- Not doing any conversion rate optimization.
It’s great that you have website visitors, but what are you doing to convert them into customers? Conversion rate optimization (CRO) via your website will help make sure you are getting the best return on your investment by increasing website engagement and enhancing onsite SEO. You’ll see a greater conversion rate of website visitor to leads and/or website sales.
- Trying every digital marketing tactic possible.
If you try using every digital marketing tactic available, a likely result is that you will spread yourself too thin, depleting your resources/finances at an unreasonable rate. The best method to pinpointing the proper strategy is to figure out where your audience is and develop the proper tactics to reach them. Doing this will help focus your digital marketing efforts to make it easier and more cost effective when trying to reach your goals.
- Using every social media platform available.
It is a common misconception that you need to have a presence on every social media platform there is. By doing this you will not be able to dedicate the time needed to grow each social media profile to its full potential. A better approach would be to choose three platforms your audience uses the most and put all your energy towards developing those three.
- Neglecting content marketing.
More and more business have started using content marketing as a way to showcase their business. Content is the most effective way to connect and engage with your audience, create brand awareness and build trust with potential customers, all while working to increase SEO. By neglecting content marketing you are putting yourself one step behind competitors that are carrying out this strategy. While this tactic can take a lot of time and energy, it is absolutely critical to your business’ growth.
- Having no marketing budget.
As we all know, failure to market your business can negatively impact your business’ ability to grow. Therefore, it’s important that you set aside some money to cover the cost of various marketing tactics if you want to stay competitive and build your business. Even the smallest budget can be effective, just do your due diligence and come up with a number that makes sense based on your business objectives.
- Expecting huge results in no time.
Be patient and don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results as fast as you were hoping. Stay realistic about the time it will take to achieve your goals. If you make the effort to thoroughly develop and implement your digital marketing strategy, you will see results in time.
If you’re not a marketing specialist it can be easy to make common mistakes like the ones listed above. Luckily, mistakes like these can be easily fixed. If you’d like help identifying, creating and implementing a digital marketing strategy, give us a call…We’re always happy to help!
Danielle Foley, President
Foley Marketing Advisors
dfoley@foleymarketingadvisors.com