If you are exploring the various avenues for growth offered by digital marketing for the first time or trying a new approach within your existing digital marketing campaigns, there are several things that you want to avoid.
The popularity of digital marketing, including social media advertising, email campaigns, pay-per-click promotions and more, continues to rise substantially, with many firms now seeing these approaches as a key means of reaching new audiences and winning additional work.
If you are new to digital marketing it can seem daunting and sometimes confusing and there are common pitfalls that practices should avoid that could add cost, time and complexity.
To help you gain a greater appreciation of these, we have outlined some of the problems that may lie ahead if you don’t take the right approach and get the best advice.
Audience
One of the frequent errors that firms commit in their digital marketing approach is failing to recognise their target audience and their unique pain points. This is particularly common among those new to digital marketing, who tend to cast a wide net to attract as many potential customers as possible.
The result is often a lack of focus and relevance in their messaging and campaigns. Additionally, many digital platforms’ algorithms rely on relevance to target users effectively and improve spending.
Therefore, a more focused and specific digital marketing strategy yields better results. To achieve this, creating customer personas or avatars and designing a customised approach, message and offer for each one is the most effective way of improving your return on investment (ROI).
Back to basics
Having an all-singing, all-dancing digital advertising campaign can be great, but if you ignore the basics then your audience will have a poor experience online.
For example, if you focus solely on social media advertising and neglect other essential components of digital marketing, such as your website, blog content, and search engine optimisation (SEO), your firm may fail to reach its full potential.
Also, many practice websites prioritise aesthetics over informative content and lack the SEO optimisation necessary for boosting visibility on search engines like Google. As a result, their online presence falls short of being a content-rich powerhouse that potential clients value and share.
Blogs, in particular, are often overlooked in favour of more fashionable trends like influencer marketing. However, even in 2023, blogs remain a crucial aspect of content marketing and offer significant potential for SEO.
Be personal
Many firms overlook the balance between automation and personalisation when devising their digital marketing plan.
With the advancement of modern marketing platforms and the latest AI, there is huge potential in this area.
Marketers can now leverage technology to tailor their content and messaging strategies carefully to meet the preferences of individual customer avatars.
Research conducted by McKinsey reveals that 71 per cent of customers now expect to receive personalised messages from companies they want to engage with and buy from.
To derive the maximum benefit from automation tools, they must be incorporated into the marketing plan right from the start.
If you haven’t invested in this area significantly in the past, this can be a barrier to growth and leave you left behind larger competitors.
This is one area where outsourcing your marketing to an agency can open up significant cost savings and accelerated avenues for growth.
Let others speak for you
There is a temptation to go hammer and tong online about how great your services are, but this often comes across as quite salesy and often isn’t the right approach to take.
Before making a purchase with a new, unfamiliar brand online, 95 per cent of people read customer reviews.
Displaying testimonials, ratings, and links to review sites such as Google and Trustpilot on business websites can substantially increase conversions without coming across as a sales pitch.
If you don’t already have testimonials or reviews available to you, then you should be doing your utmost to collate and promote the opinions of your happy clients.
Monitor, assess and improve
Every effective digital marketing strategy must incorporate provisions for continuous monitoring, revisions and enhancements, even if you have previously conducted extensive research on your target audience.
Adapting to new insights is essential, and periodic evaluations should be a standard component of your digital marketing plan.
By setting S.M.A.R.T. goals – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based – you can identify specific objectives to revisit in each iteration of your digital marketing strategy.
Failing to update, adapt and improve your digital marketing approach will lead to frustration and a waste of money on ineffective campaigns and activity. If your existing approach to digital marketing isn’t working, now is the time for a review.
Seek help
The final pitfall that many practices fall into is going it alone. If you don’t have previous experience in digital marketing, have minimal understanding of the platforms you intend to use or simply don’t have the time to deliver on your plan it is likely to fail.
Seeking out and accepting professional advice should not be a sign of defeat, but rather a recognition that you, as a partner, director or leader in your practice, do not have the time to master these skills.
Working with a digital marketing agency can help you to:
- Access to a team of digital marketing experts with diverse skill sets and experience.
- Reduced workload and increased efficiency, allowing businesses to focus on their core competencies.
- Access to the latest marketing technologies, guidance and tools that can improve results and increase ROI.
- Increased accountability and measurable results through regular reporting and analytics tracking.
- Scalability and flexibility, as digital marketing agencies can adjust campaigns and strategies quickly to meet changing business needs.
- Cost-effectiveness, as working with an agency can be more affordable than hiring an in-house marketing team and can provide more significant ROI.
A good marketing agency will help you to explore your audience in-depth, challenge assumptions and preconceptions, and create campaigns that deliver measurable success.
If you want to enhance your approach to digital marketing today, speak to our passionate team of experts.
