How is your marketing plan for 2021 holding up so far? We are more than halfway through the first month of the new year and we do agree that it’s still too early to say that whatever strategies you have prepared are performing well so far. However, it is always better to be safe than sorry.
The rate at which change is taking place has never been faster than ever before, and at the same time, it will never be slow ever again. This includes digital transformation. It continues to evolve rapidly, and when you’re constantly treading uncharted territory, you are bound to lose your way. It is inevitable to make mistakes.
Play your digital marketing cards right and you are well on your way to securing your business’ success online. Below, we list down the five most common digital marketing mistakes committed by business owners as well as suggestions to avoid them.
- Setting unrealistic goals
- Targeting the wrong audience
- Neglecting social media
- Bad website design
- Underestimating the power of SEO
Setting unrealistic goals
The first digital marketing mistake businesses often fall for is overestimating the capabilities of digital marketing, which leads to unrealistic goals. In order for your digital marketing strategy to succeed, you would need to approach it systematically by observing trends, researching your competitors, and identifying the KPIs that will help you track your progress.
To guide you in your goal setting, follow the SMART goal acronym: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive.
Targeting the wrong audience
Can you imagine your target audience as a single person? Age, profession, likes and dislikes, even sexuality – if you can’t, it means you’re targeting too broadly.
Businesses often fall trap to mistargeting when they attempt to entice more people to avail their products or services. They end up publishing inaccurate communication materials or generic content which puts off the general public, including their target market.
Start by creating marketing personas! These are fictional representations of your target audience which can help you identify specific information such as demographics, hobbies, buying habits, interests, and more. Once you have established a marketing persona (or more if you have a diverse target audience), try targeting people with similar traits.
Neglecting social media
Social media can be your biggest and most effective digital marketing tool if used correctly. It’s easy to set up and understand, and most importantly, it’s free. As of July 2020, 51% of the global population are active in social media – that’s a 3.96 billion-strong audience that’s waiting to be tapped.
Before you start drafting your social media plan, it’s important to determine which platforms will suit your business. A home-based bakeshop will fit better in Instagram instead of LinkedIn, while a construction consultancy can tick off Pinterest of their list. You can still reap the benefits of social media for your business by posting relevant and engaging content, but if you want to take it to the next level, partnering with a social media marketing agency will guarantee positive returns.
Bad website design
We all know that adding visual elements can significantly improve a text-heavy website, but if done incorrectly, it can become counterproductive. A 2018 Google study revealed that 53% of mobile users will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. Unfortunately, the same study also reported that the average mobile site takes 15 seconds to load. The culprit? Web site elements in enormous sizes.
Compressing your images and videos can significantly reduce your website’s loading time. According to web performance expert Tammy Everts, 1MB is the ideal size for fast-loading web pages, but this can still vary depending on location. By decreasing your website’s loading time to one to three seconds, the bounce probability falls to 30% – a far jump from 132% for websites that take up 10 seconds.
You also need to consider your customers’ journey as they navigate your website. Where do they go next after browsing your landing page? Are they able to find the contact form easily? User Experience Design professionals, or UX Designers as they’re more commonly known, are highly skilled in this field.
Underestimating the power of SEO
Everything we need to know about the world and beyond is at our fingertips. In 2020, Google received over 3.5 BILLION searches daily, which means that for every second, the search engine receives 40,000 queries. Given these statistics, how do you ensure that your business doesn’t get lost in a sea of data?
Enter Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This strategy involves researching the keywords commonly used by your target market in their search queries. By planning your content around these keywords, your chances of getting your high-quality and targeted content seen by your intended audience increases. Keep in mind though that SEO doesn’t work overnight – it takes a while to see results, but once you do, the rewards are definitely worth all the trouble.
Need help with your digital marketing strategy? Vous Agency is one of the most trusted digital marketing agencies in Dubai and the whole Middle East. Let us know how we can help!
