Re-examining your marketing strategies and goals can oftentimes lead to some surprising and disappointing realizations. In the endless scramble to achieve growth and produce results, digital marketing mistakes are common and easy to make. Even obvious ones.
However, in today’s competitive marketplace, digital marketing mistakes can be quite costly. In 2019, worldwide digital ad spending is expected to reach $335 billion, accounting for approximately half of the global ad market. Making mistakes in such a crowded and competitive market will undoubtedly lead to the waste of precious marketing dollars.
Having a clear, consistent, and measurable marketing plan is more important today than ever before. Here are 4 common digital marketing mistakes and how you can plan to avoid them.
Fragmented or Inconsistent Branding
Consistency is crucial when it comes to brand development and positioning. An inconsistent brand can send mixed signals, confusing potential customers and making it more difficult to communicate brand benefits.
Implementing companywide social media standards or guidelines is a good idea. At the very least, it can make sure that the image of your brand is consistent across all platforms.
However, delivering a consistent message through consistent content and communication is even more important. Making sure that all your strategies are consistent, and that your team members are all on the same page is key to successfully developing and positioning a brand.
Not Aligning Goals and Strategy
Failing to properly align your goals, channels, and strategies is one of the biggest digital marketing mistakes one can make.
Start off by defining your goals before identifying and selecting the specific tactics you will use to achieve them. Consistently working within the framework of these goals will keep your tactics and strategies aligned.
Moreover, setting clear and measurable goals is crucial to achieving alignment across all your marketing strategies. Analytics is essential for measuring progress and determining the success of specific strategies or plans.
Clearly defining and communicating objectives will make it much easier to develop consistently successful digital marketing strategies.
Failing To Understand Your Target Demographic
Identifying and understanding your target demographic will make getting your message across much easier.
In order for content and advertisements to cut through the noise of a crowded digital marketplace, they must be targeted towards specific customers. Even fantastic high-quality content can fall flat on its face if it is not aimed towards the people who will appreciate it.
When trying to understand your target demographic you should consider their behavior, not just their identity. Gaining a thorough understanding of your target demographic will allow you to develop an accurate and genuine customer-centric mindset for your content and promotions.
Analytics can make this process much easier. Using analytics to track measurable customer behavior can give you a better idea of why a customer behaves a certain way, and how they are likely to behave in the future.
Not Giving It Enough Time
In the digital age, some businesses expect results right away. Even worse, when those results fail to immediately appear, some managers are prone to pulling the plug on their marketing strategies.
However, strategies may need some time to develop, and meaningful results may take some time to materialize. You should stick to a strategy until you have enough data to either validate it or toss it in the trash.
Remember that consistency is key to any successful digital marketing strategy.
