When it comes to online marketing, there are a lot of resources out there for both starting and established marketers alike.
The best practices in the industry are widely discussed, as well as potential mistakes made in the course of implementing campaigns.
For those who are just starting out in online marketing, especially small business owners who have to do everything themselves, culling through all the information available could be too time consuming.
To make it easier for you, therefore, we have compiled the seven most common mistakes you should avoid when it comes to marketing your business online.
Commencing Campaigns without Clear Direction
Marketing is all about planning what lies ahead for you.
You should know what your goals are in online marketing and stick to it.
Overnight success is so rare; real success comes from working hard.
What helps immensely is setting a clear direction with clear, realistic targets before any campaign is implemented.
So before jumping head first into your online marketing strategies, make sure you have a plan first, with clear milestones set along the way that will tell you whether you’re keeping on track or not.
Speaking to the Wrong Audience, or to Every Audience
While it is important to market to a lot of people, it is counterproductive to market to everyone.
More doesn’t necessarily mean better, especially if you’re talking to the wrong audience.
If you are doing this now, you have to re-evaluate what you’re trying to do. An important question for you to answer, for example, is this: is your product suited to the people you’re trying to market it to?
If the answer is no — for example, you’re trying to market baby’s diapers to single men — you had better stop your marketing efforts in that demographic since it will definitely be a failure and will be a waste of your company’s resources.
Not Having the Right Tools and Partnerships
Digital marketing is very competitive and is getting more and more complex with time. With that in mind, marketers will of course need the right tools to move forward.
No marketer is capable of being a “one-man-army” and even if they were, chances are they’ll burn out quickly with the amount of workload when trying to keep up with the trends.
Getting the right people and the right tools to help you with online marketing is a great step towards aiming for success for your company.
Yes, it might seem very unnecessary to hire people for something you can do yourself but think of it this way: these people have mastered their field of work and they are there to help you achieve your marketing goals.
When they do the work they do best, it saves up a lot of your time to focus on more important aspects of your company that you and only you can do.
Invest on the right people and the investment will definitely pay off for you.
Ignoring Analytics
Analytics show the fruits of your labor. These are the numbers that tell you which sector you should improve on as an online marketer.
Checking these numbers regularly will give you a clear idea on how to improve your campaign, and lets you see what works and what doesn’t.
Ignoring analytics might be the sole reason that your campaign isn’t going so well.
After all, what benefit will you get from continuing to do things that have been proven not to work for you?
Note, however, that it’s also not good to obsess over small changes in the analytics.
Fluctuations are common, so it helps to look at the bigger picture.
Do not look solely on the numbers alone – always try to look at what exactly is the cause of these results.
If they are high then you should have a grasp on what to maintain and if they’re low, it will give you something to improve on.
Not Prioritizing Mobile
To many old fashioned marketers, going mobile seems very unnecessary and might look tedious or time consuming.
These are the same online marketers who may have no clue that a majority of the population nowadays has access to smartphones and use them for just about everything from social media to online banking, shopping online, and more.
This rising trend in the use of mobile is a clear sign that you need to prioritize building your mobile campaign.
Yes, it requires more work, maybe even more effort and resources, but consider it as an investment towards something that will give you an upper hand when comparing your business to the rest of the competition.
Forgetting to Incorporate Keywords
Websites rely on traffic to gain more visitors.
Producing new and original content on a regular basis has been and is still a popular competitive strategy which may or may not benefit your campaign at all.
Content creation relies on brainstorming new ideas geared towards the success of your campaign and avoiding the oversaturation of keywords to attract search engines to your website.
Yes, these keywords do help and they will definitely boost your SEO traffic volumes, but tread carefully.
It’s a great place to start if you’re trying to generate more traffic.
Just don’t forget about the quality of the content as well since these are what keep people coming back.
Not A/B or Split Testing
When building your campaign, it is best that you stick to facts and data rather than your emotions or gut feelings.
What might please you might not please the vast majority of people you are trying to market to.
When data is being presented to you, doing A/B or split testing will help you in making decisions for your company.
Split testing helps you decide which of two certain things perform better and which avenue to pursue.
The marketing world is definitely not a walk in the park and requires patience, dedication, and lots of hard work.
Although the marketing world seemingly imposes a lot of challenges that may discourage you, do know that once you have a general idea of what to avoid, things will get easier over time.
Along the way you will also meet individuals who may or may not be in your level, success-wise. Remember to never compare yourself to them, though.
They have their own path and campaign to improve on and you have your own as well.
Finding the right people to help you out in online marketing — from managing social media campaigns, to creating content, or making a professional-looking website that will meet your budget, finance or time-wise — is a great start towards aiming for the success of your small business.
The online marketing world is certainly complex and can seem quite complicated at first glance, especially for starting small business owners.
It’s easy to learn how to navigate it, though, especially when you already have an idea of the most common mistakes to avoid.
All Images Credit: CC 0; Public Domain. View original images on Pexels.com: Feature Image, Ignoring Analytics, Not Prioritizing Mobile.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
David Kosmayer
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