Many blog posts detail everything you should be doing to get your marketing right, but what about the mistakes? What are the things that can have a disastrous impact on your marketing?
It won’t be surprising to know that there are actually plenty of mistakes to be made, and often they are learned by making a mistake - don’t worry, though - you can use this post to help you avoid them.
You have a marketing budget, some snazzy copy, and you have started your campaign. Some of the marketing has a ‘join here’; others give away a code for a reduced price, others just talk about what you do.
You see an influx of people engaging with the advertisements, but only a few conversions… What gives?
Unless you set the goals for what you want to achieve, your campaign won’t be cohesive or targeted.
In the excitement of creating exciting graphics and brilliant copy, the purpose of the marketing can often get lost.
Keep the goal as the focus; here are a few that often come up (and can be further refined):
What is it that your business needs?
You have a month of perfectly planned and prepared content for all of your social channels and some blog posts, too - but what comes after? Tweets last nanoseconds, Facebook statuses will be swept away in less than 24 hours, and even your most beautiful Instagram efforts might not get the traction you need.
If you are consistent for one month and then inconsistent the next, you will lose engagement and become another forgotten company.
Testing how regularly you should be posting will require some effort. For example, some businesses find that posting a few times a week is enough; others need to post more frequently to compete.
Find the right cadence for your project - and plan around it.
SEO is your most powerful tool, and if you haven’t allocated enough time to excellent blog content, you are missing a massive part of your digital marketing strategy. Your blog content is where a new audience learns about you, a warm audience turns into hot leads, and hot leaders turn into conversions.
An SEO strategy is a vital step in ensuring you are getting ranked by search engines and potential customers can find you.
You need a great SEO strategy or to work with a company that can create a strategy for you.
No amount of money thrown at bad marketing will fix the problem. If your copy is sloppy and your graphics aren’t great, then no one will engage. Throwing more money into the campaign won’t help you.
Not having a well-defined audience is another area that is an issue and has seen many new marketers throw cash at the problem to increase the parameters and the impressions instead of refining the demographics you want to reach.
No amount of cash in the world can make up for the lack of strategy.
We have mentioned the audience a few times because everything you do regarding marketing should be taking your audience into account. When you understand your ideal customer, you can create marketing materials and a strategy that works.
You have to know what they like to do, where they want to do it, which platform they interact with, their needs and how your product or service fits with their life.
Marketing to the wrong people is a common mistake; a lack of access to metrics - or not understanding how to build strong buyer personas is a big issue.
Making mistakes is a great way to learn, but it can be an expensive mistake in the case of digital marketing.
