There are quite a lot of mistakes that businesses make on a regular basis when it comes to online marketing. However, these are all avoidable. We at SEM Consultants have devised a list of marketing mistakes that you can avoid in order to help your business do better and thrive. With our help, you can be getting a better ROI with every move you make. So, what marketing mistakes are you making…
Overloading your readers
Sometimes we worry so much about our readers forgetting us that we overload them with information. It is called spam when you are constantly hounding your audience with content like emails or blog posts or the like. This is a poor marketing strategy as they will start to distrust you and become annoyed by your content – no matter how good they actually think it is.
The same goes for your content; don’t put too much into one blog post or in your email marketing, otherwise the reader may be put-off by the amount of text or information. Instead, find a middle ground and tailor your content. Try not to exceed 1,500 words.
Not putting your audience first
When putting out content, remember that you are trying to engage with real people, not robots. When thinking about SEO, sometimes you forget to put the customer first, and instead write to suit Google’s algorithm. This is bad practice.
Remember to show personalisation in your work; speak human to human. Don’t constantly try to gain new users, you should also focus on keeping existing customers and maintaining a relationship with them. When your audience trusts you, they are more likely to come to you again and again and convert into customers. It is a good idea to engage with customers (or your audience in general) to show that you are a real person/business with personality. It will make them feel more comfortable with you and build a lasting relationship with your company.
Social media regularity
We all should know by now that social media marketing is a key part of our online marketing campaigns. However, poor or irregular use of social media can be unproductive for you. You should try to be regular with your social media strategy, posting frequently but without overloading your audience. You should vary your content and make use of links. If you post at the same times each week, this can help, too. Your audience will know to expect something from you at a set time this way (by using social media analytics, you can see the best time to post).
Also, the use of a social media scheduler or social media automation service can really help you to keep on top of things. Or, better yet, outsourcing to a professional social media manager, so they can do all the hard work for you.
Forgetting to actively market content
Sometimes when it comes to content marketing, you can focus too much on the content side, and not on the marketing side of things. It’s all well and good to produce excellent content, but if you aren’t marketing it, then what was the point? Not enough people will see it. You need to share the content, pay for promotion on it and actively ensure that it is seen and engaged with.
The same goes for your website. A brilliant website is a great start, but SEO won’t bring all the traffic that you need to your site. You need to market it, too, by sharing links to your site within your content or on social media, and invest in PPC management (Pay Per Click) to ensure your site is found. All these things need to be properly targeted, too. Don’t make the mistake of just sharing everything with everyone and paying out a large sum of money to target every demographic. Instead, target your content strategically.
Skipping on promos and offers
Everyone loves a good deal, so by not offering deals to your audience, you are losing out on potential conversions. Even if they don’t buy, a good deal can still raise interest in your site and encourage a click through. By offering promotions and exclusive offers, you make someone feel like they are getting such a good deal that they would be a fool to miss out on it. It’s better to get a small sale than none at all.
Unvaried content
Producing content that is the same every time, becomes very boring for your audience. They need something fresh and exciting. They need variety. This means a use of varied marketing strategies as well as a variety of content marketing. The use of blogging, social media, email marketing, paid marketing and more is the best way to reach more people, as well as spice things up. People like to know you’re there in a variety of ways.
Don’t write-off email marketing or blogging. They are both crucial elements of online marketing strategies. A blog is an excellent way to draw your target audience to your website and make use of SEO. Don’t skip out on gaining emails for specialised email marketing; and ensure you have a blogging section, as both are proven methods for gaining much more website traffic.
Not analysing data
It is imperative that you analyse any data in terms of marketing that you can. This means analysing website traffic through the use of Google Analytics. Analysing our social media strategies through Twitter Analytics, Facebook Insights, and Instagram Insights (etc). Through analysing the plethora of data provided, you can begin to understand your audience and what is working versus what is not. Then, you are in a better position to go forwards in an informed way that should produce more results. Without information, you can’t know what to do next for the better.
Poor website
A colossal marketing mistake to make is having a poor website. It is not excusable these days to have a poor site, as things like WordPress make it so easy to create one. Even better yet, you should invest in a professional web designer, because a bad website will mean little to no conversions and thousands of bounces. You need to ensure that your website is fast, easy to navigate and optimised for mobile use. Mobile optimisation may be the most important thing, for in this modern age, more people do most of their internet exploring on mobile.
Make sure your website is simple to follow, has a search bar and has aptly named menus and drop-downs. This will make it easier for your users, ensuring they don’t leave the site due to being confused about how to use it.
Poor use of SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an important part of your website and content marketing. This is basically communicating with Google to say “this is what we are” and “this is what we want to say to our audience”. The use of keywords will help you to appear on the search results page in front of the right people who search for a phrase. By not implementing SEO into your site and content, you are missing out on ranking on Google and being seen.
On the other hand, though, don’t overdo it. This is called Black Hat SEO, when you overload your site with keywords. It is bad SEO practice and it could lead to a Google Penalty. You need to find a middle ground, where you accurately use keywords to enhance your ranking but don’t lose that human-touch. Remember that your audience are real people.
No call to actions
You audience needs to know what you want from them. They may find your content and enjoy it (whether they are on your site/blog or on social media etc) but they need to know what to do afterwards. This is a call to action. It includes things like “click here to find out how social media marketing can work for you,” with providing a link for them to click to go to another part of your site. Similarly, on social media you should provide links to your site with a casual, gentle call to action like, “browse our selection of shoes today to get your 5% off”. Lead them somewhere by providing an appropriate call to action.
No plans
When it comes to online marketing, you need a strategy. A plan. Goals. A budget. If you are just posting willy-nilly, without really thinking about the engagement and what it means for the business, then you will likely not do as well. Devise a list of goals and then plan how you aim to achieve them. Set aside a sensible budget, focusing on what you need to pay for and how it will help your goals.
Doing it alone
You shouldn’t try to do all of this alone. You will definitely fall short if you do. Hiring a professional marketing team or outsourcing jobs, like managing social media, can really take the load off and ensure every part of your online marketing strategy is done right. We at SEM Consultants can be the team that you look to in order to get the job done right and avoid these marketing mistakes.