Common digital marketing pitfalls and how to avoid them

The Federation of Small Businesses estimates that three new businesses are launched each second. This is a staggering amount to contemplate - surely every market would be completely over saturated if it were true?

Well, we know that they aren’t and the reason is somewhat disheartening - according to the Small Business Administration, only around 30% of them survive the first two years. Why?

Many businesses fall at the first hurdle because they lack the understanding of the best way to market digitally. 

When a business doesn’t understand how to market their products or services cost-effectively, they fail to attract the kind of customers who’ll be willing to pay for them. 

The good news is, many common digital marketing pitfalls can be easily sidestepped as long as you can identify and learn from them - a topic I cover extensively in my soon-to-be-released Dynamic Digital Marketing book at the end of the year. 

There’s a reason the digital marketing spend worldwide is expected to grow from $283 billion to $517 billion by the end of 2023. Below are the digital marketing errors I most commonly encounter and advice on how they can best be avoided. 

1. Badly targeted content 

Most businesses would claim to have a thorough understanding of who their ideal customer is and what they want from content, yet the figures show this often isn't the case.

According to the Marketo Engagement Gap Report, 61% of marketers believe they’re putting out engaging content yet 56% of consumers feel that businesses don’t have a thorough understanding of their needs. This means that less than half of marketers are targeting their content well. 

So often I see content posted without consideration of targeting an ideal customer. Marketing to everyone is not a strategy for success - “everywhere” will not be a successful strategy because your message needs to be carefully crafted around your audience's needs and to resonate with their beliefs, goals, challenges to gain traction. 

Low engagement will stem from your message not reaching the right people at the right time, so a quality over quantity approach will always reap the best results.

93% of companies see an increase in conversion rates when their content and digital marketing is personalised - behavioural targeting (such as selecting audiences through their content interactions, key traits and characteristics, interests or even by looking at the competition) makes a huge difference.

Reaching the right target audience is crucial. If your business doesn’t have a thorough understanding of who this is, its digital marketing efforts are wasted - after all, what is the use in targeting a customer who doesn’t need your services? 

Begin by developing a customer avatar - a profile of the ideal customer you are looking to target. Insight for this can be found in your existing customer base - notice what patterns emerge and don’t just look at basic demographics such as age and gender, either. Do they have similar buying behaviours? What values and interests do they have?

This intel is invaluable, as it will help you build a detailed picture of exactly the person you’re looking to reach and - most importantly - what content they consume. When you’ve done this, you’ll be better able to adapt your digital marketing to suit their needs. 

2. Not looking at the metrics

One of the biggest mistakes failed digital marketing campaigns make is not looking at the metrics. Metrics such as how content is consumed, how well it is engaged with and how many leads and sales it’s generated are the solid evidence you can use to study the success - or lack thereof - of a campaign.

For a business to attract a steady stream of leads that turn into profitable customers, there needs to be a consideration towards how sales and marketing work together to a common goal.

These cannot be separate divisions and an integrated approach is a must for any company. A marketing campaign may have several aims but, in the end, the focus is to win new business and retain current customers so using the insights you have to see what’s working and why enables you to take tangible actions to optimise and improve on the returns. 

By assessing which marketing tactics are working and which are not, you can discern which areas are actually worth investing in and which are generating a significant return on that investment. An excellent example of this is in customer targeting.

Many companies falsely believe that new customers are the key to generating better sales when, in actual fact, existing customers have a much higher conversion rate - Marketing Metrics found that marketing strategies targeted at new customers are only 5-20% successful, whereas those targeted at existing customers were 60-70%.

Getting into the habit of adapting campaigns is vital and - thankfully - fairly easy to do in the digital sphere. 

Digital marketing is ever-evolving and measuring performance will help businesses spot trends and prepare for the future - even in fluctuating or uncertain climates.

The key is to understand consumer behaviour and drive digital experience through analysing customer journeys and shorten sales-cycles.

3. Not capturing and nurturing leads

Hubspot published a rather telling statistic - that only 4% of visitors to your website are currently looking to buy.

The digital marketing campaigns that fail often do so because they are too focused on creating an immediate sale rather than capturing leads.

An empty lead or sales funnel will eventually lead to business failure. The critical success factor is to have a steady, consistent flow of leads and processes in places to be nurtured through to paying customers.

Many businesses fail to attract the level of leads required to be profitable because there is no process in place that feeds their funnel.

What does this mean?

That they’re pouring energy into trying to reach cold audiences.

That they’re trying to start brand new relationships every day, as opposed to ensuring there are enough people at every stage of the sales cycle to drive sales and revenue and cash flow. An end to end funnel approach is the fastest way to grow and scale any business.

Though 96% of visitors will walk away without a purchase in the moment, it doesn’t mean they will continue to do so in the future.

If your digital marketing campaign has made the effort to get the audience to their desired location in the first place, it would be a great shame to drop the ball at the last hurdle by not capturing their data before they leave again.

A digital marketing campaign should always give as much attention - if not more - to the section of their audience who isn’t yet ready to buy but may be in the future.

By consistently nurturing these relationships at every step of the buyer journey through high-value content, you’ll begin to generate trust and it’s this trust - as we know - that leads to more sales. 

4. Inconsistent content 

Speaking of consistency, one of the most common pitfalls I see with digital marketing campaigns is a lack of consistency. Frequency and consistency of digital marketing content is vital to success - a report by Lucidpress actually found that consistent presentation of a brand increases revenue by 23%.

When a consumer finds a brand regularly appearing on their radar and there is stability in that brand’s communication (for example, in the style, format and regularity) they begin to feel a sense of familiarity and loyalty and it’s this familiarity and loyalty that leads to conversions in the future - 57% of UK consumers say trust in a brand has a significant impact on their decision to buy. 

Not only will you find that content is most likely the biggest driver to any customer conversion but it also plays a part at every stage of the customer journey.

It is far more effective to use content marketing tactics to pull in traffic and visitors using 3rd party as it serves you while you sleep.

Even by having articles on your website that are not time sensitive in terms of relevancy but appeal consistently to consumer demand will continue to work for you by connecting you with your audience.

Consistent, good content is essential not only for the likes of ranking in Google search results but also for staying on your customers’ radar, building rapport with new audiences and adding value to prospects.

5. Not utilising social media effectively

One of the easiest ways to gauge a digital marketing campaign’s success in 2019 is to look at how it’s used social media.

Making your business visible to the social media community is absolutely crucial to success nowadays. There are now around 3.5 billion social media users in the world and a staggering 95% of adults aged 18-34 keep up with brands via their social networks.

In other words, to keep up with the modern consumer, your business needs an active social media presence. By consistently posting and engaging with your audience, you can position your brand as an expert and take the opportunity to showcase its personality to prospective and existing customers. 

Nowadays, many people are self-taught social media marketers, which isn’t necessarily an issue - as long as they are 100% positive that their actions are actually helping the business achieve its goals and driving results.

It is entirely possible to post every day for a year and gain no traction with a social audience

– Why?

Quite simply because it’s boring or badly curated for the audience’s needs, wants and beliefs.

To connect with networks there needs to be a common interest and also an understanding of what they want. The worst social media failures generally come down to lack of strategy or knowledge of what the actual tasks or actions should be each and every day to ensure audience growth and engagement. 

Not only does digital marketing help you reach your target market more quickly and effectively, it is the catalyst for generating healthier revenues.

According to Google, a company that implements a digital marketing strategy can expect 2.8 times better revenue growth than those who don’t.

An effective digital marketing strategy is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ for businesses - it is now a ‘must’. 

If you’re struggling to understand the direction your digital marketing should take, take our digital marketing quiz and see how you score against your peers.

Drawing on over 25 years of experience, I share the most effective strategies you can implement in your business today, in my Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide - Grab a free copy here.