Common Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid (+ Solutions)

Mistakes are inevitable.

Even the most skilled person in their craft has made mistakes at some point in their life, and it’s actually these faults that have transformed them into the successful person they are today.

How so? Well, if it weren’t for their mistakes, they wouldn’t be able to identify what needed to be changed or improved upon. In other words, these thriving men and women turned their mistakes into genuine learning opportunities.

As one of the most prominent digital marketing agencies in Miami, we’re not ashamed to admit that we’ve made countless blunders before getting to the top of the ladder. We gotta say, they pushed us to do better, and they even helped some of our team members reach their full potential.

We also gotta say that digital marketing is one heck of a tricky business. Especially if you’re just starting out, it can be a minefield. With complex strategies like paid ads, SEO, and content marketing, it isn’t hard to make mistakes.

To help you be as error-free as possible in your digital marketing journey, we’ll focus on the seven most common digital marketing mistakes to avoid and how you can fix them - in case you’re guilty of committing them presently!

1. Lack of  Goal Setting and Tracking

It’s never a good idea to run a marketing campaign without a single goal in mind. It’s one of the biggest digital marketing crimes you can commit.

How will you know about your campaign’s progress if you don’t even have a goal in the first place? With nothing to focus on, you’ll never find out if your campaign’s a hit or miss. You’re only setting your business up for failure.

The same goes for tracking your goals. If you already have your goals but you’re not really monitoring them, you won’t have a clue as to where you perform best and what areas are in need of improvement.

For your campaigns to be effective, you should implement SMART goals:‍

• ‍Specific: You should aim to achieve a particular action, such as converting leads or driving organic traffic.‍
• Measurable: Your goals should be trackable. Knowing what you want to achieve makes it easier for you to determine relevant metrics and data.‍
• Achievable: Ask yourself what you want to accomplish and where you wish your business to be years from now.  Set feasible milestones. ‍
• Realistic: A good digital marketing goal shouldn’t exceed the means of your resources and budget. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. ‍
• Time-bound: All goals should have time limits. Keep your team on the right track by creating deadlines.

Additionally, you’ll want to identify what key performance indicators (KPIs) suit your goals best, as they will help you measure your campaign’s ROI. To do this, use Google Analytics throughout your entire campaign.  

2. Reaching Out to the Wrong Audience

Targeting the wrong people is another common digital marketing mistake companies make.

Oftentimes, they find themselves trying to attract an audience that’s already too broad. They want to gain more customers to the extent that they target just about anyone, and that includes those who aren’t interested in their offerings.

As a result, these brands get extremely disappointed when people don’t buy their products or use their services.

There are also companies that firmly believe that they know their target audience, only to end up targeting the wrong people entirely. All the time, money, and effort they spent creating and running their campaigns have completely gone to waste.

So, how do you make sure that you target an audience who will enjoy your content?

Simple: Research, research, and research!

Start by building marketing personas based on your previous customers. Marketing personas refer to fictional profiles that represent your buyers based on data about your target audience, such as their demographics, hobbies, interests, and buying habits.

If your business caters to a diverse audience, you can certainly establish more than one buyer persona.

Once you’ve established your personas, you can start targeting people having those traits. Then, test whether your campaigns provide more returns by targeting a narrower audience or a broader one.

3. Paying Little or No Attention to SEO

Your potential customers will be able to find you easily online if you have a website that’s optimized for search engines. That’s why you need to have a solid SEO plan.

Without a dedicated SEO section in your digital marketing strategy, you’ll have a difficult time reaching new leads, which means losing valuable traffic to competitors.

However, the real issue here is the fact that despite implementing the best SEO practices, most companies fail to push through as they see minimal results during the first few months. Feeling discouraged, they give up and move to other solutions.

SEO isn’t as complicated as you might think. It’s the waiting game you should worry about. Patience is the key here.

Below are several tips to optimize your website:

• ‍Use the right keywords to attract your target audience. For example, if you’re a gym owner, you can include keywords like “best fitness centers in (your city)” or “gym near me” to make it easier to get discovered.‍
• Speed up your site’s load time to minimize bounce rates. People tend to leave sites that take more than three seconds to load.‍
• Deliver high-quality and relevant content that will get your visitors excited whenever they’re on your website. ‍
• Include keywords in your URL so that both search engine bots and humans will know what the page’s content is all about right away. Keep your URLs short. ‍
• Improve user experience by making your site visually appealing and easy to navigate.

If things get a bit too complicated for you, or you just don’t have the time to optimize your site, don’t hesitate to look for a digital marketing agency in Miami that specializes in the area.

4. Neglecting Blogs

Blogging is essential in building your brand identity and establishing you as a thought leader in your industry.

Unfortunately, many businesses don’t take it seriously, while others neglect their blogs after a few posts, thinking that it’s not working for them.

If you happen to be one of them, you better get back to blogging, or more importantly, make it a priority. Here’s why: Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to see positive ROI.

Your blogs should match the interests of your audience. They should provide real value and keep your readers engaged.

A good tip is to produce quality content that answers your audience’s questions clearly and promptly. Interacting with them in the comment section will keep them coming back to your blog page, as well.

Lastly, make sure to blog regularly. Doing so allows you to expand your reach and drive more traffic to your website. Plus, your audience will view you as an authority figure in your field, leading them to choose you over your competitors.  

5. Being Inactive on Social Media

Every business needs to be on social media. With millions of Americans spending a couple of hours on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter in a day, it’s the perfect opportunity for you to connect with your prospective and existing customers.

While we’re assuming that you already have a social media profile for your business, we’re not sure if you’re taking advantage of the platforms. Then again, you must only focus on platforms your target audience visits the most.

After you discover the widely used platform, you can start posting content regularly. Post photos of your new products, host a Q&A through Facebook live or give your Instagram followers a glimpse of your company’s routine using the Story feature.

If you’re willing to go the extra mile, consider investing in social media advertising. These ads will allow you to appear in the newsfeeds of users who often search for the products or services you offer. You’re just a click away from getting new leads and eventually converting them into actual customers!

6. Failing to Remarket

Most companies are more focused on either acquiring new customers or retaining old ones. Only a few make an effort to reach out to those leads who were unable to convert, reminding or encouraging them to finalize their purchase. This is known as remarketing.

If remarketing isn’t a part of your digital marketing plan, it’s time you save a place for it.

An email marketing campaign is one of the simplest ways to reengage and convert your lost leads. First, be sure that you ask your visitors to provide their email addresses. Next, segment your email list so that it’ll be much more convenient for you to send the right messages to the right people.

Since remarketing aims to prompt potential buyers about those purchases they abandoned at checkout, you can remind them through email. Other people you can retarget are those who viewed an item of yours previously. For sure, you’ll give them another nudge to convert.

Posting remarketing ads is another tactic that can help you reengage these leads. These ads use cookies or a pixel to track what your visitors are browsing on your site, and where they go after leaving your site. It’s like stalking your prospects, minus the creepy part.

7. Seldom (or Never) Offering Discounts

Your customers deserve to receive perks in the form of discounts or promotions.

Not only will it get them to buy from you, but you’ll be seeing new faces coming to your store, physically or virtually. That means more traffic, which means more sales coming your way!

Coupons are also a great way to form a stronger relationship with your customers. In fact, 91% of people say they’ll gladly visit a retailer again after redeeming a coupon, while nearly 50% would be happy to switch brands based on a coupon offer.

Sounds like you’ll have to count on coupons when the going gets tough!

Thinking of Collaborating with a Digital Marketing Agency in Miami?

Whether it’s ranking high on Google, converting your leads, or retargeting visitors you lost, Digital Resource is more than ecstatic to help you achieve your digital marketing goals. We are your experts for everything digital, after all.

Contact us now to learn how we can tailor the best marketing plan for your business needs.