Marketing is a vital aspect of any business. So much so that how its handled can determine the difference between a business’s success or failure. As much as you might consider yourself a salesman, digital marketing takes more than smooth-talking a customer into a buy and without some digital marketing know-how, your product won’t be seen and therefore won’t sell.
However, there is a lot to cover in digital marketing, since there are many different avenues to go down, so it’s no surprise that mistakes are common. These mistakes can leave money lying on the table, or outright cause your business to fail. Take a look at the most common mistakes and our picks on how to avoid them.
Don’t ignore your market data
The main perk of online marketing is its in-real-time research. With every customer movement tracked, it’s easy to learn how customers found you and whether their engagement resulted in a sale.
Businesses looking to fail will ignore this data. They won’t cancel an affiliate deal that isn’t gaining them much footfall. They won’t swap out keywords that aren’t working. They won’t implement product changes recommended by customers.
Your market data offers a lot of valuable information, like who you’re attracting and what content is encouraging sales. You can monitor this with the help of social listening tools such as Onclusive, you’ll get insights into what’s working and what’s not. Refusing to act on them will fail your business.
Do be consistent
Consistency is key to keeping a brand going. It is best to choose a few elements of your brand or product and then base your content around that. Don’t post something that doesn’t suit your brand. That’s why you’ll see Instagram influencers with a second “private” account posting whatever they feel like.
You can use software online to create and manage your content, automating a lot of aspects of running an online business. For example, Zendbox will handle your inventory and act as a warehouse manager, fulfilling orders.
But consistency also means persevering. Success won’t happen overnight, so you have to keep posting, knowing that at some point it will pay off – which it will. Plan and schedule your posts beforehand to make it easier to not go off-topic or forget a day when you are supposed to post.
Don’t target a massive audience
Small businesses or start-ups will want to jump in and make their product so vague that it will appeal to everyone because surely you will get more leads this way. This is wrong. A user isn’t going to pay any attention to something that doesn’t interest them. If you aren’t specific with what your product is and who it is for, a user will see nothing that they want to grab on to.
You should appeal to your demographic using algorithms, affiliate links, keyword research and much more. The beauty of digital marketing is that it hones in on a target that you most think will buy your product.
Do use your Search Engine Optimization
The main way to find anything on the internet is to search for it and if your website isn’t on the first page of a Google search, it simply won’t be looked at. Things like domain authority and keyword research will determine how far up you are on a Google search.
These are aspects of Search Engine Optimization and are just a few examples that will boost your rankings and make you the first thing people see when they tell a search engine what they’re looking for. Without it, you will be left on the dreaded “second page of Google” that no one enters.
