Marketing is big business, so why do so many companies and organisations get it wrong? Marketing mistakes are commonplace yet taking the time to look at where you can improve requires minimal effort. You may just be making a small error, or you may need to revise your entire strategy, so here at Click Through Digital we have put together this deeper dive into your marketing mistakes so you can address where you are failing and take the correct steps to ensure a successful marketing campaign.
No clear understanding of your customers or target audience
Knowing your audience is one of the first rules of marketing. This has relevance across all aspects of marketing strategy and is more applicable than ever before with the rise of social media platforms.
Key insights into what your target audience is and clearly understanding their wants and needs is critical to enable the creation of a successful marketing strategy to maximise the ROI and give you the scalability to reach a wider audience.
So, how to get the best understanding of your customer base or target audience?
- Engage with potential clients – you can communicate directly via social media, run polls and surveys, find out what matters to them and what their expectations and needs are.
- Define your demographic – knowing your demographic is key, so look at who is buying your products or services, what specific things they are buying and adjust your strategies accordingly.
- Use an expert – trying to develop a marketing strategy is difficult if you are a smaller business without an in-house marketing team. Hiring an expert or marketing firm with the insight and understanding you may not have can provide a solid investment to help improve your revenue.
Poor SEO (Search engine optimisation)
When it comes to SEO, a surprising number of businesses aren’t optimising their website content to maximise their visibility and improve their search engine rankings. SEO is always evolving, so it is vital that SEO is at the continued forefront of your marketing strategy to stay one step ahead of any new rules and keep your website producing results.
What steps should you be taking to improve your SEO?
- Use real-time research – data analysis as part of your overall marketing strategy is key to improving the visibility and reach of your website to your target audience.
- Conduct competitor research – a good SEO strategy should start with monitoring of your competitors. Understanding the marketplace and your competitors by using the results of your competitor analysis, can help your business identify the biggest threats in your industry, where they are positioning their brand and will give you the tools to find the gap for your product or service.
- Clear URLs – having a short URL that contains a main keyword for the page is a quick and easy SEO fix.
- Optimise your website – your website needs to be optimised for SEO purposes, which includes quality content, correct internal and external links and regular blog posts.
- Do link analysis – quality links are essential for SEO. You want high value backlinks that improve your revenue, identifying where you are failing means you can change your strategy to give you an edge over your competitors.
- Use an expert – the time and resources needed to conduct the research and analysis needed for great SEO, as well as the knowledge needed, often means that the best practice is to hire a marketing expert in this field. If they are good at their job, this should provide excellent ROI and we would always recommend this approach over trying to become an expert yourself.
Conducting no or minimal keyword research
Keyword research is one of the most important digital marketing tools you have. Businesses that neglect this area of their SEO are almost certainly not going to be as successful online as their competitors who do utilise this as part of their marketing strategy. It enables you to put your product or service at the direct forefront of your target audience by improving traffic.
How can you fix your keyword research?
- Research and analysis – understanding what keywords your customers are searching for means you can then optimise your SEO strategy to include the terms most likely to direct traffic to your website and increase the likelihood of a sale.
- Target the correct audience – taking your keyword research and applying it to your target demographic means your website is more likely to gain qualified leads.
- Find out what you already rank for – finding out the keywords that have got you your current ranking can give you the insight into what customers search for that is associated with your business. If you rank for the wrong keywords, you are unlikely to gain sales as your target audience is wrong.
- Use available SEO tools – there are online free tools for basic keyword research but as a long-term strategy, it would be best to use a paid service such as SEMRush.
- Use an expert – just like with other parts of your SEO strategy, hiring an expert is the best solution to improve sales and conversions as they will have the insights that you need to correctly apply the right keywords and phrases to maximise your web traffic.
Not having the correct content
Content is king when it comes to marketing. Excellent content can captivate and engage your audience and can be used as a powerful marketing tool. Many businesses do not realise the importance of good copy, either on a website or social media, which can result in poor returns and limited results.
What does good content entail?
- Regular blog posts – planned blog posts can make a huge difference to SEO by providing fresh content for search engines that can help keep your business high up the rankings. This regular content can also help keep you relevant with your target audience.
- Matching your content to your brand – brand voice is crucial across all areas of your business and needs to be consistent and engaging across all channels in order to create connections and relationships with your customers, so make sure your content is saying the right thing about you.
- Correct keywords and calls to action – ensuring your content has research-identified keywords and specific CTAs means it is more likely to reach and engage your target audience which leads to a higher conversion rate.
- Use an expert – copywriting is a very specific skill, so you are unlikely to get the most from your content without outsourcing to a copywriter. Most good marketing agencies will have the resources for this in-house, such as here at Click Through Digital, if not, then you can hire an independent copywriter as part of a wider marketing strategy.
Choosing to use paid ads without a marketing plan in place
There are now many pay-per-click (PPC) platforms in place for businesses to choose from for paid marketing advertisements, however, without a marketing strategy and plan in place, spending money on paid ads can often be unsuccessful and is a marketing mistake we are seeing repeatedly from businesses both large and small.
What should you do before choosing PPC?
- Tailor your strategy – you need to have the research and data of your demographic and keywords in place before choosing to spend money on ads. This way you can only spend where ads are most likely to reach your audience.
- Run A/B testing – by running small advertising campaigns with different formats and different sections of your target audience, you can get the data needed from which to base any future campaign without blowing your budget.
- Employ dynamic search campaigns – Dynamic Search campaigns or adverts help to find customers searching for exactly what you offer and are a great way to fill any gaps in your keyword-based campaigns.
- Commerce? Consider a shopping campaign – you can utilise a shopping campaign to promote your online and local inventory, boost traffic to your website or local store, and find better qualified leads. These campaigns give a really good reflection of the product being sold before the searcher clicks the advert. This in turn generates better leads.
- Use an expert – when it comes to PPC, you need to know what you are doing. Although it is a great way to boost sales and reach, it can be costly if you don’t have the right management of the campaigns in place. For this element of a marketing strategy, we would always recommend using a marketing agency to get the maximum ROI.
No direct engagement with your customers
Customer experience is everything, understanding their pain points and responding quickly and engaging with your customers online is a rarely used marketing technique. This is especially pertinent to social media where customers can air their grievances publicly. Ignoring social media comments or poor Google reviews can have a negative impact on your brand and business.
How can you improve your engagement?
- Respond quickly and engage positively – prompt responses and communicating in a positive manner can make a difference to your customer service. Rather than argue, try to understand their pain points.
- Analyse, analyse, analyse – understanding where your customers may have fault with your product and services can only help you improve your business. You can use third-party research or do your own to give you the data you need to make a difference.
Poor website design
In an ever-changing digital landscape, having a well-produced website is the foundation for all successful digital marketing strategies. If you have a great product or service and a fabulous marketing strategy that directs your target demographic to your website, yet the website is technically poor and doesn’t provide good UX, then you are not going to turn those clicks into conversions.
How to get the most from your website?
- Make your website UX focused – ensure your website is designed for intuitive and responsive UX, supporting your customers throughout their journey with accessibility and functionality.
- Match your brand identity – make sure your website design positively reflects your brand with the right aesthetic and business vision.
- SEO optimisation – making sure your website is optimised for SEO purposes will give a huge boost to your online visibility.
- Have a technical audit – a website audit can identify where your website is not performing as it should and gives you the knowledge to improve on those areas to maximise your website conversions. These are available online, or simply use our FREE website audit here at Click Through Digital!
- Use an expert – there has been a rise in “create your own” websites, however, having a technically good website supported with great website design means the use of an expert in the creative field.
If you want to fix your marketing mistakes, you need to identify where you are going wrong or where your strategy isn’t performing. Employing the use of a marketing agency can be a cost-effective solution to many of these common mistakes and can provide an excellent ROI.
Here at Click Through Digital we provide successful marketing solutions to boost your business reach and sales growth. Please contact us today to find out how to generate results for your business.
