6 Digital Marketing Problems that can Ruin Business Growth [with solutions]

Wondering why your blog is not the talk of the town?

Or maybe you have a great eCommerce site, but you can’t seem to get enough customers?

You may have spent hours crafting the perfect content, but if you are not marketing it right, those coveted hits will never come in.

So ask yourself- is there something missing in my digital marketing strategy that is leaving me out cold?

Most brands today engage in some or the other sort of digital marketing, but only a few do it right. A good digital marketing strategy can help you:

• Generate leads,
• Build your brand equity,
• Gain more followers and generate more revenues.

However, most brands fall prey to some common digital marketing problems that prevent them from achieving their marketing and revenue goals.

In this article, we discuss some of the common digital marketing mistakes to avoid to grow your business and brand equity. that brands make, as well as possible solutions to the problems.

Common Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Here are some of the common digital marketing mistakes to avoid:

1) Lack of a clear digital marketing strategy

This is the case with most brands. Most of us have some general idea about what to do- but if you do not have a proper digital marketing strategy in place, you will never be able to beat your competition.

Most brands make the mistake of relying solely on “hunches”, short-lived trends, mindlessly mimicking competitors and nonsensical actions like creating a social media handle and sharing content there.

Probably this is one of the biggest problem in marketing management today.

Unfortunately, that is not a digital plan!

You must meticulously plan how you want to define yourself in a crowded market. You must think of how to market your products and services in a way that it convinces your target audience that associating with your brand will give them some kind of fulfillment.

If you don’t have a clear set of goals or marketing plan, your brand will not be able to navigate the market to its advantage.

A good digital marketing agency can help you chalk out a holistic plan that will include clear action points on how to market your brand to the best effect.

A cohesive digital marketing strategy covers all key elements, and ensures that you reach your goals on all fronts.

More than that, a good digital marketing strategy entails constant monitoring and tracking the subsequent results after the action steps are deployed. This helps you identify what is working and what is not, and fine tune your strategy accordingly.

2) Not defining the target audience

There is no product in the world that appeals to everyone.

So, when you start marketing your products and services, be clear on who exactly it is that you are marketing to.

Have a profile for your target customer in your mind, and orient your marketing strategy accordingly. Some questions that you can ask to build your customer persona may be:

• What income group do they belong to?
• Is your product meant for the elderly or the college going young adults?
• What is the gender you are targeting?
• What are their aspirations?

Remember, your target audience will also determine your marketing medium and messaging.

For example how you talked to women a decade ago will be markedly different than how you talk to the same target demographic today. Before, they were more likely to look at advertisements on TV, now there is a big chance that they spend more time watching videos online.

In that case, it may be more prudent to place your ad on YouTube instead of traditional media channels!

So, make sure that you have a clear idea about who your target customer is. Once you know that, create content or the marketing materials that appeal to your intended audience, and position your brand in a way that they can relate to. This way, you can engage with your customers better.

Here is a tool from hubspot to make a customer persona or a user persona

3) Not allocating marketing budget wisely

Marketing can be done in many ways via many channels. But not all of them will carry the same cost or give the same returns.
For eg., a share by your friend on their social media page will cost you nothing, but hiring a celebrity to be your brand ambassador will be an expensive investment.

A common digital marketing mistake that brands make is they often concentrate on only one way of marketing, and put all their eggs in one basket.

The best thing to do is identify low cost ways of marketing that give the best returns. Choose your platform and marketing format carefully- and calculate which ones are going to give you maximum ROI.

It is recommended that you do that for both short term and long term goals, and assign your budget accordingly.

Make sure you monitor and track your ROI, so that you can allocate your funds to priority areas.

4) Under-utilising SEO techniques

SEO or search engine optimization is no longer an option, it is an absolute necessity when it comes to digital marketing.
It is a no-brainer that more people are using the internet than ever before, and online purchasing has gone up exponentially in the last few years.

If you want to reach out to your target audience, you must make sure that you rank high, on search results, of all major search engines such as Google and Bing for keywords related to your industry.

SEO ensures that your website beats out the competition when your target audience searches for the products and services you offer.

However, efficient SEO is more complicated than what most of us know- it comprises many elements, and its methods are changing constantly. Google’s algorithms are tweaked and updated regularly, almost on a daily basis- which means you have to update your SEO techniques accordingly.

This includes

• changing keywords,
• redoing keyword placements,
• changing keyword density,
• website audits, and
• applying the SEO parameters to social media profiles and posts as well.

Your website structure should also be refreshed regularly so that Google’s spiders can crawl through it easily and your content is more searchable.

Also, pay attention to link building.

Backlinks act like trust votes, so the more you have from good websites, the higher your site will rank on Google’s search results.

Make sure that all your links work, and keep eliminating broken ones. By optimising your backlinks, you can get more web traffic.

5) Ignoring conversion rates

Remember, that your ultimate goal is to turn your visitors to customers so that you can reach your revenue goals. Many brands do their best to increase traffic to their websites, but do not pay attention to maximise their conversion rates.

This diminishes ROI.
In order to convince your visitors to buy your products, you must optimise your landing pages and make sure that the visitors have a great brand experience on your website.

Guide their journey so that they are convinced to make a purchase. Apply good sales techniques, good visual elements and write a persuasive copy which will tempt them to make a purchase or sign up for your services.

6) Making one-way communication

Most brands speak at the audience, but do not engage in conversation with them.

This is a mistake.

This is one of the biggest content marketing problems facing small business in India.

Any relation is give and take, and online communication should not be an exception. This kind of content marketing mistakes cost a lot. Small businesses keep investing in content in the form of social media post or blogs, never paying attention to what essentially is the need of a customer.

It is not enough to simply draw your audience in, you have to engage with them in such a way that they want to come back to your brand.

It is well established that customers are more likely to return to a brand if they see the brand respond to their feedback.

Listen to your followers and customers, and you will gain valuable market insights, and can also know how you can give them a better experience. Customers like to hear back from brands, and brands who actively engage in conversation with their customers on social media or their websites have a higher recall value.

Engaging with customers also builds up your reputation as a customer-friendly brand, and is likely to gain you more new customers. Social shoppers are more likely to recommend brands that engage with them to their circle of friends, and drive more traffic to the brands.

Remember, people like to talk to humans, so don’t shy away from conversing with your customers. Brands like Wendy’s and Netflix have such a solid digital presence and a wide customer base because they regularly respond to their customers.
So if you want to build a up your digital presence, engaging with customers is a must.

In Conclusion

Digital marketing is vital to all kinds of businesses, but it is even more important for small businesses. If you keep the above in mind while designing your digital marketing strategy, you will be able to reach out to a wide audience and ensure better ROI. So, map out a good digital marketing strategy that avoids these mistakes, and you can build up your brand sustainably.