Digital marketing has come a long way from the days when it was seen as a good-to-have marketing strategy to today when one cannot imagine a marketing plan without the play of digital strategies.

In fact, today, brands are planning their traditional marketing and branding activities keeping digital marketing at the center of their overall marketing planning.

Well, what is equally true is many of the brands still are not able to get their digital marketing right with consistency.

We all can agree that the online landscape is ever-evolving and hence, difficult to understand and predict, even for the bigger brands. With the increasing competition around, it’s even more difficult for smaller brands to establish themselves in the online space and sustain.

Digital marketing comes with its own risks and rewards and should be implemented with proper planning in order to get the best results.

Many times, brands try and do too many things together, and then it becomes difficult to even identify where exactly their strategy is going wrong in case the results are not as expected. It is important to rectify common mistakes at the earliest so as to give your brand a chance to stand out in a crowded digital marketplace.

Here are six common digital marketing mistakes that brands make:

  1. Not having realistic digital marketing targets and goal tracking

Marketing goals are usually derived from the business goals and are often broken down in timeframes with smaller targets that act as milestones in the brand’s long journey towards business success.

Marketing strategies and plans are made keeping end-goals and targets in mind. But it’s important that the targets (smaller milestones) set are realistic and achievable.

For example, if your B2B website is getting a monthly traffic of 4K users then you will do your marketing grave injustice by setting up targets such as reaching 40K monthly traffic within 3 quarters.

Unrealistic targets can be misleading and discouraging. Chances in such cases are that the marketing campaigns will lose focus and steam and will end up burning resources and money without much ROI (Return on Investment) to show.

Tracking your goals are as important as defining them. It’s important to know if your marketing campaigns and activities are moving the needle in the right direction or not. And if not, then you should be able to know the corrective measures that need to be taken.

 

  1. Wrong audience targeting

One of the key areas where brands often miss out or get their planning wrong is in the selection of their target audience.

Most brands tend to target a broader audience in order to reach maximum people and as a result, fail to identify the specific target groups for their brand. Targeting anyone and everyone hardly ever works with digital marketing unless you are already a world-renowned brand with a product that is consumed by almost everyone.

Identifying the right set of audience who are more likely to buy from you is of utmost importance. Your marketing goals would otherwise go in vain.

Creating a buyer persona based on the characteristics of your consumers is a great way to identify the correct target audience.

Getting your buyer personas in place before you start focusing on your marketing campaigns is going to increase your chances of a positive ROI.

 

  1. Neglecting Remarketing

Many a time, brands miss out on using the digital channels to market to their existing customers.

Brands focus so much on acquiring new customers that their attention toward their existing customers is lost as far as remarketing is concerned. This affects the brand loyalty of the customers.

As a brand, make sure that you are not leaving your existing customers as a one-time buyer and are doing enough to ensure that he or she keeps buying from you.

Emails, remarketing ads, loyalty programs, and online discount coupons are some of the ways you can keep your existing customers engaged and maintain a long-term association with them.

 

  1. Missing out on building your brand identity

In building a brand identity and then sustaining and enhancing that identity, having your brand’s voice out there in the digital space is vital.

One of the easiest and best ways to do so is by having your brand’s own blog!

Blogging, not only helps drive traffic to your website, improves your site’s rank and SEO but also helps establish your brand as an authority in its respective field.

Your brand’s blog provides you an avenue to communicate with your audience in general and to build a following in the long run.

Creating quality content, interacting with your audience, and blogging regularly helps establish and maintain a brand identity.

Missing out on blogging can make you miss out on the potential business growth that an audience that is aware of you and is also connected, can bring about!

 

  1. Not giving due respect to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as the name indicates, is a set of well-thought-through and planned activities that will help your website be visible to your potential customers when they are searching for services and products that you sell.

Digital marketers across the world are well aware of the importance of SEO and they do get basic SEO implemented onto their brand’s website. However, many brands do not have sustained SEO as part of their digital marketing strategy and this is where they err.

Brands tend to be too heavy on paid campaigns and social media marketing and as a trade-off ignore SEO often due to lack of patience and resources that is required for effective and sustainable SEO management.

This can prove catastrophic since the Brand will never be able to build a sustainable and long-lasting online presence.

Not incorporating SEO in your digital marketing strategy will result in people not being able to find your website in search results.

Make sure that you do not fall prey to the pressure of focusing more on quick wins rather than on long-term customer acquisition. See to it that your marketing has a sustainable SEO program.

 

  1. Working on too many digital marketing strategies but without enough resources

Well, this is more common than we would like to believe. And this circles back to having unrealistic marketing goals.

When you have too many campaigns (on different themes and strategies) running at the same time, it can get difficult to send across a unified message to the target audience.

You will require too many people to work on multiple things at the same time. In such a scenario, it can also get difficult to track your goals and assess what is working and what is not.

You as a brand may also end up stretching all your resources to such extend where marketing as a process may break down and in the end, you will be left with missed marketing opportunities.

As a brand, you can focus on one or two well-planned digital marketing strategies. This will not only allow you to make better use of the available resources but will also give you more marketing success.

Many of the elements of digital marketing appear to be simple and can be easily implemented in-house by brands. However, digital marketing does get tricky when you are looking to implement a full-fledged digital marketing strategy that will bring in desired business growth.

Doing so will require a lot of expertise in running a well-tuned, synced set of digital marketing activities while keeping the marketing goals in focus. It does make sense, in such cases, to hire a digital marketing agency that can bring in the required expertise with experience and scale to help you achieve your marketing goals.

Whatever you do, make sure that you do not commit the six common digital marketing mistakes that brands make:

  • Not having realistic digital marketing targets and goal tracking
  • Wrong audience targeting
  • Neglecting remarketing
  • Missing out on building your brand identity
  • Not giving due respect to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
  • Working on too many digital marketing strategies but without enough resources

Need help to get your digital marketing to perform well and help you meet your business objectives? Write to us at [email protected]. We will be glad to assist!

Happy Marketing!