Digital marketing is an efficient and content-focussed form of marketing that requires long-term planning and nurturing. It’s a nuanced science form, and takes time to perfect. Here are 4 of the most common digital marketing mistakes:
Freestyling
Your digital marketing strategy should be clear, well thought-out and measurable. It requires planning and setting both long and short term goals. Something as simple as writing two blog posts per week accompanied by four social media posts are attainable goals that you can set. Make sure they are realistic and relevant to what you want for your business.
As well as being realistic, you also need to plan ahead. Content is king – and it’s really no easy feat to come up with fresh and engaging social posts and articles. Make sure you’re not caught off guard by having, at the very least, brief outlines of what you want to see on the different social and media platforms. Set up a calendar to stay organised.
Not developing customer profiles
This may seem obvious, but you need to know your customers. This is just like market research – it not only improves your digital marketing strategy, but also helps you sell more products and teaches you how. It’s an invaluable insight that all smart business owners need to spend the time learning.
Keeping inbound marketing separate to outbound marketing
Your marketing approach should be holistic and consistent. Although a televised ad is markedly different to a blog or social media post, you still need to ensure that your brand is consistent and easily recognisable. Have a focussed campaign and adapt it appropriately to the different mediums and make sure that you are sending the same message, directing to the same landing the page, giving the same call to action. The two strains of advertising should be complementary.
Ignoring the numbers
The digital age has given businesses a wealth of new information previously not readily accessible to business owners. Now, they can access data pertaining to clients with a click of a mouse. Perhaps due to the fact that everything is made so simple, understanding metrics can appear trivial and unimportant. Without a doubt, this is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Digital marketing is a science with numbers and metrics attached to it. They tell you about potential leads, conversion rates and sales data. Don’t ignore these – learn to use them to your advantage.
