When it comes to digital marketing, I have seen it all; from businesses that don’t want to “pay” for advertising, to companies that are spending thousands per month with no idea if their digital endeavours are yielding real results. Here are the top 10 digital marketing mistakes to avoid.
1. You don’t know your numbers
Numbers are everything when it comes to business, and this does not stop when it comes to digital marketing. It is important not to lose sight of fundamental business principles when it comes to marketing your product in the digital space. It is essential that before you start digital marketing or any marketing for that matter, you determine how much many marketing dollars you can afford to spend per purchase of your product or service. Without this magic number, there is no point in even beginning to work on a digital strategy as you have never defined success.
2. You’re not playing the game with social media algorithms
Posting for the sake of posting on social media is not just a waste of time; it can be downright dangerous for your brand. Social media is dynamic, and aspects of each platform change regularly. Staying ahead of the curve and using these changes to your advantage will always yield better results than simply posting content. Leveraging new platform features, groups, image sizes, and social media communities will bring you back to the top of the news feed when it comes to social media. All of this said, great content is a must. Content that engages your audience with likes, clicks, shares and comments teaches the social media platform algorithm that your content is what their users want to see. Simply put, more engagement = more eyeballs.
3. You think traffic equals customers
We’ve all done it. Had a little dance around the office or spin around on the swivel chair when we have logged in to our Google Analytics and seen a site traffic graph as steep as the side of Mount Everest. If the sales or conversion graph shows a similar incline, then the happy dance is justified. However, if there are not even enough orders to pay the bill for the marketing that sent all those clickers to our site, this is not even close to a successful campaign. The key here is that site traffic does not equal customers.
4. Digital marketing set and forget
If only it were that simple! Digital marketing is not something that you can set up and leave to its own devices. When it comes to social media and display advertising where fresh visual content is essential to keep a campaign performing, it is especially important to be continually optimising your campaign. For optimally performing campaigns, all aspects of the campaign are continuously tested and refined to keep pushing ROI higher.
5. Incorrectly set up metrics (or no metrics at all)
The saying “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” is especially true when it comes to digital marketing. Knowing your cost per conversion, cost per lead, site conversion rate and return on ad spend (ROAS) are just the beginning of your businesses data literacy. The more you know about how your customer comes into your digital environment and how they behave once they are in there, the more equipped you are to find more customers and make more sales.
6. Not analysing ROI
It is critical for all digital marketing efforts to be isolated into channels, campaigns and even ads so that ROI can be determined. The more granular you can get the more opportunities for optimisation. Effective analysis of the ROI means you can confidently make the calls that will make a difference; poor performing campaigns can be retired, well-performing campaigns can be optimised.
7. Poor planning
Time is tight, deadlines loom, and the boss wanted it yesterday, so you throw up a campaign and cross your fingers. Anyone feeling guilty? On rare occasions, a gem can emerge, but on the whole, poorly planned, inadequately executed and undertested campaigns are doomed to be poor performers. Take the time and make the campaign work right from the beginning.
8. Not paying attention to SEO
Can I get a neon sign for this one? Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not glamorous. There are no pretty pictures or flashy copy required. Good SEO requires commitment, patience and routine attention, but the rewards are worth it. There is very little that will get new customers to your door faster than a top 5 organic search ranking, making SEO well worth the investment.
9. Single Channel “Strategies”
A recipe for vulnerability is using a single channel for marketing. Using a single channel is especially seductive for start-ups or those who have found a magical formula in Google Adwords that enables good ROI and company growth. The old adage of keeping all your eggs in the one basket rings true. Should the proverbial basket get dropped, disaster inevitably ensues; and in a world struggling with coronavirus induced economic uncertainty, this is even more real than ever before. Multiple channels in digital marketing are not just ideal but essential for business sustainability.
10. Failure to respond to the market
If coronavirus has taught businesses just one thing, it is that you can never predict what will happen in the future. The companies that thrive during this pandemic are the ones who can respond with agility to changes in the marketplace and have a flexible digital marketing strategy that can facilitate this change.
Want to know more? At Lee Paton Digital, we are a digital agency that is committed to achieving real results for our clients and creating a digital strategy that provides a foundation for growth. Get in touch to arrange a free digital marketing consultation.
Originally published at https://leepaton.com.au on August 29, 2020.