Over the years, the number of times that we have seen companies throw away their marketing budget on “salesy” projects and digital marketing mistakes is countless. To achieve effective engagement, you need to understand who your audience is and what attracts them to the services and/or products you offer. Our team of digital marketers has put together the five common digital marketing mistakes and how you can eliminate them for good!

Mistake #1: Pushing not pulling

Good marketing is not about aggressively pushing your product. You need to offer your audience something of value in return for their business. Why should they buy your latest innovation? Outbound marketing is just that, it’s outbound and it’s becoming irrelevant in an age where anyone with an internet connection can research your company. Businesses need to stop pushing products and instead pull customers.

Solution

Embrace inbound content marketing and offer as much value and insight as you can. Find out what questions your audience has about your company and answer them to increase lead generation. You want to be the go-to source for your industry so share every ounce of available knowledge with your audience.

Mistake #2: Not personalizing your material

Think about your inbox and how many impersonalized emails are unread or the number of press releases clogging up your social media feed that you just scroll right by. Noticing a theme here? Both methods ignore the needs of the customer which is why they go unacknowledged. Without personalization, you’re just another salesman.

Solution

We’re not saying that genuine personalization should eat up all of your time and spend away your budget. Just the smallest touches, like a personalized greeting at the beginning of an email, can make a difference. There are even ways that you can automate that so it doesn’t add much time at all.

Mistake #3: Content that doesn’t convert

Lead conversion is the lifeblood of marketing. If your content doesn’t inspire a reader to click on your call-to-action or buy a product, it officially goes down as a failure. Attractive, well-written content is only useful if it serves a purpose. If your content isn’t converting, it could be due to any of the following reasons:

• You’re focusing too much on product features and not the benefits
• You’re rushing the sell
• You’re not linking to a relevant offer

Solution

As you’re writing content it’s important to keep your buyer personas in mind to remember who your offer is for and what value they get out of your content. Great content is like a great cup of coffee – once you reach the end, you’re warm, satisfied and eager for more.

Mistake #4: Failing to measure results

Marketing ROI means different things to different people. Some base marketing success on short-term sales targets, while others look at annual budgetary expenditures. However, when you quantify success, it’s vital to track and analyze every component of your campaigns from start to finish. Marketing should be a revenue-generating exercise, not a cost centre.

Solution

Using tracking tools such as Google Analytics and Ad Managers takes the guesswork out of ROI. You can keep a time log of lead generations, keyword searches, form conversions and more to see exactly where you need to improve. If you find keeping track of all those campaigns and analyzing the numbers stressful, contact us and we will gladly help you set up and manage campaigns, providing you with detailed reports throughout.

Mistake #5: Not promoting content

One surefire way to lose money in marketing is poor content promotion. A large chunk of content only gets 8 shares or less due to poor research and understanding, lack of promotion and lack of trend awareness. Working together, these issues bury lovingly-crafted articles in the internet’s endless content mill.

Solution

Be an active social media user. Share content across your networks at the times your audience is most likely to read it. And don’t just stop after a week. There are programs out there that allow you to stretch your campaigns over 2 months. Don’t forget to stay on top of upcoming events and current trends, scheduling your content for days that will deliver the most impact.

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When it comes to digital marketing, poor investments can land you in serious trouble, especially if you keep repeating the above common mistakes. Take the time to plan out a comprehensive marketing strategy, execute it with your audience firmly in mind and measure its success from every possible angle. If you’re ready to resuscitate your digital marketing campaigns contact us today!