5 Digital Marketing Mistakes Your Business Should Avoid
Tags: Mistakes, Strategy, Avoid, Business, Digital Marketing

Digital marketing uses business strategies and tactics with the use of technology and the Internet. It pertains to all marketing efforts while leveraging digital channels in hopes of business success. The 21st century is now living in a connected world which helps businesses promote their products and services to target audiences. This convenience may lead to errors caused by complacency and hastiness. Understand these five digital marketing mistakes to avoid them.

5 Digital Marketing Mistakes

1 — No Clarity for Your Digital Marketing Goals

“Winging it” is a surefire way to fail at your marketing campaign. “Failure to plan is planning to fail,” and this mantra is in the minds of many professional digital marketers. The first step to any digital marketing campaign is to have a clear understanding of your primary objectives.

Here’s a short list of things that you need to clarify during your campaign’s planning stage:

Target audience

Campaign costs

Time frame

Potential results

Don’t forget to create a SWOT analysis — Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, to help you gain a clear view of your measurable goals. These steps can also help you to better gauge your chances of digital marketing success. You can use marketing automation software to help you generate and follow campaign objectives.

2 — Not Documenting Your Strategy

Several business people still don’t document their marketing strategies. Failing to type or write your digital marketing plan is one of the biggest mistakes you can do for your firm. It’s essential to have a guide to map out the activities lined up for the campaign.

One rule of thumb is to focus on a maximum of three strategies. Implementing more than three strategies at the same time can cause chaos for small marketing teams. Focusing on two or three approaches allows your team to concentrate on specific tactics instead of trying to do several tasks at once.

3 — Not Tracking Analytics

There’s no such thing as a “set it and forget it” rule in digital marketing. All marketing campaigns, regardless of size, require constant maintenance and supervision. Make it a habit of setting a day to check up on the progress of your campaign.

You don’t have to allocate an hour each day to see all the minor changes found on your website. Instead, pay attention to macro trends. Focus on the whole picture as opposed to checking on every minute detail.

For example, one part of the sales funnel may help your website gain significant traffic but may not provide high-quality leads. If you only look at the referring traffic, you won’t generate a holistic understanding of the current performance of your campaign.

4 — Failure to Test

Testing is essential to any digital marketing campaign. Several marketers leap to conclusions about what is and what’s not performing. Test your strategies first before you make them live. Put your campaign in “Trial Mode” by targeting a small audience or sending emails to a few people. Check the results of your test campaign and adjust your procedures accordingly.

Make testing a priority to measure the chances of digital marketing success. You and your team might want to try out several strategies first to ensure putting expenditures to good use. Also, make sure to give your test periods ample time to produce results. It’s not wise to jump into conclusions after only 3 hours from the launch of your test campaign.

5 — Posting on Social Media Without an Objective

Social media is now one of the powerhouses for digital marketing success. People are always connected to friends, families, and businesses with the help of portals like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest today.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder, and CEO of Facebook posted on his social media portal about focusing on meaningful interactions. He said that his team is helping users find relevant content while bringing more meaningful interactions.

Posting non-relevant content to your social media accounts might encourage interactions, but that won’t present you with the responses you need for marketing success. The replies you need are from potential customers interested in purchasing your products or services.

Here are a few tips to help you enhance your social media marketing campaign:

Each post should inspire, educate, and entertain.

Take time in crafting relevant content that stands out.

Ask questions, post facts, and deliver “How To” guides to social media followers.

Respond to each comment.

Do a live stream to help build authentic and meaningful relationships with followers.

Use the information you gained from reading through this list to plan and implement your next digital marketing campaign. A Hubspot report states that 46% of marketers using well-organized lead management strategies can follow up on over 75% of leads. Know and take advantage of the best practices, KPIs, and terms critical to digital marketing success.