Digital marketing has become an integral part of every business.
It’s particularly an essential for new businesses.
Digital marketing spreads awareness that a new kick-ass business is in the game now.
The more people in your market know you, the better chance you have of surviving.
That said, digital marketing isn’t as simple as people think it is.
Online marketing can boost your business with fast results – but, it may just waste your resources and time if not done correctly.
Many small and corporate level businesses have failed terribly at online marketing, and we are here to discuss why.
Purpose of this article is to help you avoid these mistakes.
#Lack of Research
Everyone knows this, but still, it’s a common reason for failure in online marketing.
You think you have done your research if you know a little about business. But, research isn’t a work of day or two.
There are many minor details you have to be sure about. Don’t just follow what other people are doing.
Conduct your own research, get your own figures and stats, and yourself analyze the market.
Here’s what you need to do.
Research Your Audience:
- What they do
- Where you can find them
- Their purchasing power
- Best ways to directly approach them
Research Your Product/Services:
- Is your product even up to the mark?
- Do you have what it takes to survive in this market?
- Do people even acquire it online?
Conduct Online Surveys
Create online questionnaires to learn about your market. Get answers about your market from your market.
- How likely are people to acquire your service/product?
- What do they think of your business?
- What’s the best place, time, and way to approach them?
Psychological Profiling
Once you have enough data, create a psychological profile of your customers. The more you know about them, the more specific online marketing you can do. Their profile attributes would include information like:
- What is the lifestyle of your potential customers?
- Can you divide your customers into categories depending on their attributes?
- How much they earn and would be willing to spend on your product/service?
- What is their nature, personality, and temperament?
- How often would they consume what you offer?
- Is there any pattern to it?
Study Competition
- How big is your competition?
- Who is your biggest competitor?
- What makes your business more unique or better than theirs?
- How can you outsmart them?
- What is it they’re doing in online marketing and you can do it better.
#Unspecific Digital Marketing Goals
What is it that you plan to achieve with digital marketing?
- Are you just doing it to create brand name?
- Do you intend to get customers?
- Is it to engage your customers online?
- Or, you just need more traffic for your website?
Digital marketing is more powerful than traditional marketing because it’s specific and based on stats.
If you can’t specify your goals, you may as well sell air coolers in Vostok Station (Coldest City) of Antarctica – because you wouldn’t know what you are doing.
You need to identify your business goals and set up marketing goals accordingly.
How specifying your goals will strengthen your digital marketing?
- If you are just trying to engage your audience, you will only create posts that will interest them. You engage people who are already your customers, and you want to keep them.
- Finding new customers will need a different approach. Your goal could be to get 1,000 thousand more leads in one month.
- You will need different tricks to build an email subscriber list. One example is to use the technique called ‘Content Upgrade’.
You can put your focus on the right place by specifying your goals.
#Unplanned Content
Content marketing is a very strong section of digital marketing.
- Content is what impresses and engages your audience.
- It is the persuasion they need to become a lead from a visitor.
If your digital marketing has failed, unplanned and low-quality content could be the reason.
People often underestimate the value of content. All leading SEO digital marketers have emphasized to improve the quality of content.
Here’s what you might be doing wrong with your content.
- You might be talking about yourself too much and not the audience.
- Content doesn’t promote your product and services.
- It’s not engaging for your audience.
- You are not planning your content and just publishing it without any strategy.
- Lack of research or wisdom in the content is sure to drive away your potential customers.
- You are targeting keywords that are irrelevant or wrong in some other way.
Blogging is a great way to share content with your audience and rank the website on Google. You should learn to get more traffic on the blog to succeed in digital marketing.
#Not Understanding Your Customers
You can try all you want, but I will never purchase designer derby shoes.
Do you know why?
Because I can’t afford it!
Another example would be selling technology to elderly persons.
So, if you are trying to sell something without understanding your customers, you will only waste your time and resources.
The point is, do proper research to understand your customers.
It is also one of the biggest reasons why businesses fail at their first online marketing struggle.
What do you need to understand about your customers?
- Who would purchase your product or service?
- What do they expect from you?
- Who is their current supplier?
- What is the best to way to approach them?
- Would they go with the sale online?
- Could there be any trust issues?
- Can they afford it?
- What are their views about your competitors?
You can filter your audience based on these questions. Next, come up with the smartest way to cover all these requirements.
These answers will also show you the deficiencies in your business.
#Not Engaging With Customers
Digital marketing is not just about getting new customers. Its job also includes maintaining the existing once.
A customer doesn’t have a personal relationship with you. He may forget you the second a purchase completes.
You have to keep reminding them that you are best for them.
- It will keep them from turning to your competitors.
- Right kind of engagement makes your customers loyal and closer to you.
- When a customer trusts you, he prefers you over your competitors.
- A happy customer brings more customers, and that’s the best kind of advertisement.
- Seeing your robust customer service, new customers are more likely to join you too.
#Diverted Focus from Product
Digital marketing has its power, but what can it do if your product or service sucks.
Working on online marketing, you might distract from what truly matters: “the quality of your product/service.”
When you manage to sell what you offer, the next important part is to make and keep the customer happy.
An angry customer will never come back to you and stop 100 more going to you.
#Ignored Call to Actions
Digital marketing is not just about reaching people; it’s to attract and convert them into sales/leads.
You have to prompt and make it easy for people to respond.
For this, you have to use technique called Call to Action.
Call to action refers to words that encourage a viewer to take action.
The right use of Call to Action can:
- Increase your visitors
- Boost your sales
- Grow your subscription list
Not using Call to Action will:
- Make you miss potential customers
- Waste your marketing efforts
#Trying to Be One Man Army
It is understandable that hiring external services may not be affordable for new businesses.
But, trying to do it all by yourself may just waste your time and resources.
A business owner should have a good know-how of digital marketing; but, it is recommended to hire outside experts for the job.
A professional has the skills and experience to get the most out of minimum efforts. It may take more time and search to find such a guy or agency, but it will pay off.
Don’t be afraid to invest but make sure you hire the right guy.
#Unskilled Web Marketing Team
A team is one of the pillars that support a business.
Sooner or later, your business is bound to doom if this pillar is weak.
That’s why choose the right guy for the right job.
Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people. – Steve Jobs
A skilled team is a necessity you can’t avoid for your business.
If you have a guy or agency doing digital marketing for you, make sure they knows what they are doing.
Monitor every step and be part of every important decision.
#Giving Up Too Soon
Marketing takes time to show results.
It take about 6 to 12 months with digital marketing.
But, you get indicators that you are moving in the right direction.
Make sure you have waited long enough and not giving up too soon.
You may only see money going in and not getting enough return on investment at the start.
So, Perseverance is crucial here in digital marketing.
#Bad Online Marketing Strategy
Many businesses at online marketing because they didn’t plan it right.
Their techniques were correct, but the strategy to use them was wrong.
Digital marketing isn’t done randomly.
It is carefully planned and deployed step by step.
It is not enough to be busy… The question is; what are we busy about? – Henry David
Make sure you learn from all above-mentioned mistakes and create your digital marketing strategy accordingly.
Things to Keep in Mind Before Creating Online Marketing Campaigns
A strategy defines how you will utilize your resources.
A misleading strategy will waste all your investment in it.
The more specific you are about your strategy, the more targeted marketing you will do – which results in more leads and sales.
Here are a few things to consider when creating a digital marketing strategy.
1. Your Goals
What do you plan to achieve with the digital marketing strategy?
All your goals should be measurable. A goal could be:
- More sales
- Customer engagement
- Brand awareness
2. User’s Device
How will a potential customer view your advertisement or post?
Create device-specific digital marketing content to make it user-friendly. It is even more critical if Google is one of your traffic sources.
Google has strict policies to create user and device-friendly content. You should also know how to avoid any penalty from Google’s changing algorithm.
A device, in this case, can be a:
- Desktop
- Mobile
- Tablet
3. Customer Persona
As discussed above:
- You should conduct proper research,
- Learn as much about your audience as possible,
- And create their persona profile.
This will save you from wasting time on the wrong audience and enable intelligent marketing.
You will be able to connect to your audience on a personal level if you understand them well enough.
4. Geographical Area
Geographically, where do you offer your services?
Are you limited to one specific city, state, country, or region?
Limit your target audience to that area.
For example:
- Target only local keywords
- Set your website for the geographical area from Google Analytics
- Create content for the local audience
- Run your ads only for that specific area.
Targeting a local market in digital marketing strategy returns quality traffic, better conversion rate, more leads, and more sales.
Conclusion:
Digital marketing is crucial for every new business. However, it can be quite a bummer when it fails.
Whether you do your digital marketing yourself or hire outside help, just make sure you don’t make the same mistakes as many before you did.
Right kind of digital marketing takes your business to the next level, but it does require your time and efforts.
Just make sure:
- You have done your research as discussed above
- You understand your market and customers
- Your content will attract and engage customers
- You gather a great and loyal team
- Your product is competent; and unique (if possible)
- It is easy for potential customers to approach you
- You build a great digital marketing strategy according to your market
- And, you don’t give up!
