10 Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

In all honesty, most marketing mistakes come down to a lack of coherence in strategy or spending too much money. It’s recommended that businesses spend 8% of their revenue on marketing, and for a small business, wasting any of that budget can tank your business.

Luckily, there are ways to boost your strategy and save money along the way, and we’re here to help. Let’s talk about the most common digital marketing mistakes to avoid and fix in 2022!

10 Most Common Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Briefly, let’s discuss what we mean by digital marketing. Digital marketing is everything you do online to drive new leads or entice existing customers to repeat sales. Well, here’s where most businesses go wrong with that!

1. Neglecting Your Website

What do you consider your website to be in relation to your business? A digital asset? A place to make sales?

Well, your website is the home base at the very center of your digital marketing strategy. Everything you do, from social media to email and ads, will all attempt to drive traffic here.

For that reason, websites need to be optimized both for SEO value and to work in tandem with your entire digital marketing strategy.

By following the appropriate metrics on your favorite analytics tools, you can pinpoint exactly where you lose users and optimize that step along their journey.

Poor website usability affects your campaign in more ways than one, so it ultimately pays off to optimize your entire site.

2. Not Having a Content Marketing Strategy

Without a doubt, the most common tool for content marketing is a blog. In most cases, not having a blog is a huge mistake, but you can substitute one for a different type of content if you choose.

For search engine optimization (SEO) and all-around organic traffic, there is no substitute for a blog. The reasons are simple.

First, Google can easily index the text on a blog and try to match your keywords with the appropriate users.

Second, users search for information far more often than brands. If you only have a few pages on your website, how will anyone find you without searching for your company name? Exactly.

Third, you can use this free traffic to prompt leads. By utilizing calls to action at the end of each post, you can direct your users to anywhere on or off the site that you want, driving free, organic leads.

Finally, organic search results build brand awareness, trust, and loyalty. 94% of users skip over the search ads in favor of the organic results, which means users start on an initial note of trust with your brand. Don’t underestimate the power of a blog.

3. Overlooking or Forgetting Your Target Audience

Whoever your target audience is, they should always be your prime focus.

Whether you’re launching a new product or the third blog post of the week, the benefit to your target audience should always be in mind.

Essentially, if you don’t create content for them, then you are pushing content at them. That’s the case, whether it’s an advertisement, blog content, email, or social media post.

Also, their interests, trends, and industry standards change all the time, regardless of your industry. For that reason, market research is not a “one and done” expense but rather an ongoing process.

4. Neglecting Competitor Research

Equally important to market research is competitor research. If you don’t know what your competition is doing, how will you know how to beat them?

By looking closely at your competition, you can learn the right keywords to use, what kind of content helps their strategies, and how they spend their marketing budgets.

5. Not Utilizing Existing Customers

In marketing, getting customers is only half the battle. Keeping them is the other half.

Too often, marketers overlook the network of existing customers and users they have, even though existing customers are often far more valuable than new ones, and they cost even less to sell to.

For that reason, brands need to utilize both social media and email in their strategies. The average ROI on an email campaign is $42 for every dollar spent, which is almost unheard of in the marketing world.

However, email and social campaigns are useless without followers or subscribers. Throughout your website, add plenty of prompts for users to follow your social media profiles or subscribe to your newsletters.

6. Forgetting About Mobile (or Desktop) Users

In 2022, we strongly suggest taking a mobile-first approach to your web design strategy, as the majority of traffic now comes from mobile devices. Optimizing for mobile devices is essential for both SEO prospects and user experience.

On the other hand, we still can’t forget desktop users, especially in a B2B environment or an older target audience, as they are more likely to use desktop computers.

7. Overspending on Tools

Analytics tools, keyword research tools, and even ads can come for free, so don’t overspend on services you don’t need.

Using Google Coupons and the equivalent from other brands, you can save big on PPC ads, which are often the largest digital marketing expense for small businesses.

For keyword research tools, you can find plenty of options online that are free, but they may limit your daily searches. However, that’s not a big deal for most small businesses.

Lastly, Google Analytics is free to use and offers just about every metric you could possibly need on your website.

8. Not Tracking Metrics

On that last note, if you aren’t currently tracking your key performance indicators (KPIs) on your website, ad, email, and social campaigns, then you’re running a race with a blindfold on.

If you aren’t tracking your leads, monitoring how users engage with your site, or tracking campaign performances, how will you know how to improve them?

Without following these measurements carefully, chances are that you’re throwing money down the drain. No campaign is perfect, and there are always ways to improve, but you have to know how.

9. Neglecting Customer Service

We aren’t just talking about in-person or over the phone. Customer service should be reflected in the automation you use, your email campaigns, your responses on social media, and more.

54% of consumers say they are more likely to feel satisfied with a brand (and repeat patronage) for quality customer service.

10. Lack of a Clear Strategy

So far, we’ve used the term “digital marketing strategy” a few times. If that concept is new to you, then this is a mistake to fix immediately.

Sit down with your marketing team or fellow business leaders, discuss your goals, and write out a road map to achieve them.

Without a clear strategy in mind, you’re unlikely to see success in your strategy. There are so many small details that every campaign can perfect, but without a clear outline, this is a challenge.

For example, social media strategies need to utilize brand messaging, aesthetics, trending hashtags, and promote quality content while posting at the right times.

Now, that’s one example of some of the intricacies involved. If marketers are not on the same page over these issues and there are no clear goals in mind, success will be limited.

How to Fix Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Now that you know some common digital marketing failures don’t worry if you have room for improvement. Instead, get excited for the results when you fix your strategy. Here’s how.

Choose the Right Digital Marketing Services

Hiring a digital marketing agency can help you fix all of your campaigns and start boosting your leads in the shortest time possible.

Moreover, they can look at your existing strategy from an outsider, expert perspective and offer advice on how to get the most out of your efforts, what needs improvements, and where to double-down.

However, you want to find the right digital marketing services for your needs. You want to find an agency with good reviews, some experience with your industry, and the right services for your strategy.

Ideally, you want a digital marketing agency that also offers web design services and SEO experience. These are your longest-lasting and most valuable digital marketing assets, so they need some TLC.

Boost Your Strategy Today

Now that you know the biggest digital marketing mistakes to avoid and fix, there’s no time like the present to start correcting these mistakes. By starting today, you’ll see the fastest results!

Stay up to date with our latest marketing news, and feel free to contact us with any questions or for help with your campaign!