Around 65% of businesses are struggling to generate traffic and leads. In fact, they claim it’s currently their biggest marketing challenge. Meanwhile, about 80% of new leads never translate into sales at all.
You could end up wasting time, money, and energy if you’re making mistakes with your online business marketing strategy. You could lose the chance to generate fresh leads and conversions as a result.
Instead of risking your company’s future success, take the time to avoid these five major marketing mistakes.
Adjusting your online business marketing strategy with these issues in mind can set you up for growth and success. You can get ahead of the competition and start generating fresh leads. As you boost conversions and sales, your ROI will rise.
Then, you can establish yourself as a major player in the industry.
Set your business up for long-term success by avoiding these costly marketing and advertising mistakes today.
1. Not Establishing Your Goals
If you want to learn how to market an online business this year, take the time to establish your SMART goals. These goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Results-Driven
- Timely
For example, maybe you want to increase website traffic by 20% using blog posts within the next month.
Make a list of your goals for the year. These goals can involve:
- Increasing brand awareness and recognition
- Boosting trust and loyalty to retain customers
- Establishing yourself as a thought leader
- Generating more website traffic
- Gaining social media followers
- Increasing email subscribers
- Boosting online sales
- Improving your ROI
Then, determine which digital marketing strategies can help you accomplish those goals.
Not Setting KPIs
If you want to avoid making costly marketing mistakes this year, take the time to establish your key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs can help you track the progress of each campaign.
For example, you can track:
- Unique website visitors
- Bounce rate
- Clickthrough rate
- Dwell times
- Email subscribers
- Social media followers
- Form submissions
- Phone calls
Establish KPIs for each goal. If you’re not meeting your goals, you’ll know it’s time to adjust your online business marketing strategy.
2. Failing to Diversify Your Strategy
The key to online business marketing is to create an omnichannel experience for your customers. You can use different digital marketing strategies to reach and engage customers. Don’t make the mistake of failing to diversify your strategy.
Here are a few strategies you can use to market your online business.
Web Design and Development
About two out of three consumers prefer beautifully designed content. In fact, web design has a 75% influence on your website’s credibility. Meanwhile, websites that load slowly lose $2.6 billion in revenue every year.
If you want to avoid costly marketing mistakes this year, make sure to update your website. An old, outdated, slow site could hurt your entire digital marketing strategy.
In fact, you’ll need your website for search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, and more. Without a strong website, you’ll lose a chance to engage, entertain, and attract customers.
Work with an experienced web design and development agency to improve your site using the latest trends. Try to update your website with the user experience in mind.
A positive user experience (UX) ensures your website is easy to use and navigate. If your site is easy to use, people can find what they need with ease. They’ll recognize the high-quality customer service you can offer.
Otherwise, people will leave your website frustrated and annoyed. They might tell other people about their negative experiences, too. Your brand’s reputation could plummet as a result.
In fact, nearly 90% of consumers won’t return to a website after having a bad experience.
If you want to avoid costly online business marketing mistakes, make sure your website is mobile-ready, too. Over 90% of the 4.28 billion mobile users prefer browsing the web on their mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile-optimized, they’ll leave without clicking around.
Your clickthrough rate and dwell times will plummet. Meanwhile, your bounce rate will continue to rise.
A high bounce rate can hurt your rankings on search engines like Google. The lower you rank, the less often you’ll appear in front of customers.
In fact, those consumers will see your competition instead when they look for your product or service.
Don’t let that happen! Instead, update your website as soon as possible. Ensure it’s sleek, organized, eye-catching, and easy to use.
A strong website could set the rest of your digital marketing strategy up for success.
Brand Development
It takes over five impressions before you produce even a little brand awareness. Meanwhile, it only takes 10 seconds for someone to form an impression of your brand.
To build brand recognition, consistency and repetition are key.
Nearly 60% of consumers want to shop from familiar brands, too. Building your brand and establishing brand guidelines are essential. Otherwise, you’ll fail to tie together your overall online business marketing strategy.
Consumers will fail to recognize your business on sight. They might even confuse your business with another.
Instead, you can develop your brand guidelines to maintain brand consistency. Your brand guidelines should include your:
- Logo
- Color palette
- Font styles
- Voice
- Tone
- Personality
- Image styles
A signature color could boost brand recognition by 80%.
You can also use your branding to communicate your values. In fact, shared values account for 64% of brand relationships. You’ll have an easier time connecting with your target audience as a result.
In time, you could start to develop a loyal following of customers. Lasting brand loyalty is sometimes worth 10 times as much as a single purchase.
Take the time to develop relationships with your customers. Understand their pain points and help them find solutions through your product or service.
A 2% increase in customer retention can reduce costs by as much as 10%. Developing relationships can increase retention.
You’ll spend less money on acquisition advertising and more time improving your business!
Don’t make marketing mistakes like skipping brand development. A strong brand could set you up for lasting growth and success.
Content Marketing
Content can help you demonstrate your experience and expertise. You can establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry. You could generate brand trust as a result.
Use different forms of content to reach your target audience, including:
- Blog posts/articles
- eBooks
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Case studies
- Testimonials
- Videos
- Infographics
Then, optimize your content using SEO.
Search Engine Optimization
Nearly 70% of online experiences begin with search engines like Bing and Google. In fact, over 50% of your web traffic comes from organic searches.
Unfortunately, only 0.78% of Google users look at the second page of results. If you’re not reaching the first page, you need search engine optimization (SEO). SEO can boost where your website ranks on search engine results pages.
If you’re not using SEO already, you’re missing an opportunity to:
- Boost brand awareness
- Build brand recognition
- Generate website traffic
- Establish your credibility as an industry thought leader
- Build brand trust and loyalty to retain lasting customers
- Generate leads, conversions, and sales
- Improve your ROI
In fact, SEO drives 1,000% more traffic than organic social media. About 60% of marketers say SEO and blog content is their highest quality source of leads. Meanwhile, leads from SEO have a 14.6% close rate.
You can work with an experienced digital marketing agency to develop an SEO marketing strategy. Then, you can reach more customers and draw them to your online business.
Pay-Per-Click
Don’t make the mistake of neglecting digital advertising. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms allow you to create digital ads. Your ads can appear on search engines, web pages, and social media platforms.
Create eye-catching, engaging ads to draw people to your website. Then, use a dedicated landing page to convert those visitors into customers.
Use remarketing, too. Remarketing gives you a second chance with previous website visitors.
Email Marketing
As you avoid the most common marketing mistakes this year, make sure to develop an email marketing strategy. Emails can help you remain top-of-mind with consumers. You can draw people back to your website and generate repeat sales.
Use emails to let consumers know about your newest blog posts, sales, and products. You can even send them automated emails when they abandon their carts!
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing can help you engage and entertain customers. It’s also a great way to draw in fresh web traffic. Unfortunately, many online businesses make the mistake of avoiding social media altogether.
Consider working with an influencer your customers already trust. You can leverage the influencer’s existing reach to draw in a fresh audience of leads.
You can also leverage their existing brand trust and loyalty to boost your own credibility.
3. Failing to Track the Trends
Online marketing trends change all the time. If you’re not up-to-date with the latest trends, you could miss a chance to reach customers. Instead, remain informed of the latest trends.
For example, Google’s search engine algorithm changes hundreds of times a year. A few SEO trends to consider include:
- Voice search
- Video content
- Featured snippet
- Mobile-first indexing
- Google’s Core Web Vitals
Social media is constantly changing as well. Add more video content (including Reels and Stories) to your Instagram strategy this year.
Learning how to market an online business using the latest trends can help you get a step ahead of the competition.
4. Targeting Everyone
Over 80% of consumers want you to treat them like a person, not a number. Another 74% get frustrated when web content doesn’t appeal to their interests.
In fact, over 60% of consumers expect personalization as a standard of service. Nearly half won’t spend time with content that is irrelevant to their interests.
Another 52% will switch brands if you don’t personalize your communications.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with your online business marketing is trying to target everyone. Your customers are unique people with unique interests and needs. You can use your digital marketing strategy to empathize and appeal to your customers.
While learning how to market an online business, start by researching your target audience.
Who are your customers? What problems are they facing? What do they care about most?
Segment your larger target audience into smaller buyer personas. You can organize your personas based on demographics and psychographics like:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Household income
- Marital status
- Buying behaviors
- Interests
- Pain points
- Occupation
- Education
A female college student will likely have different interests than a single, 30-year-old father of two kids. Try to learn as much as you can about your customers.
That includes their search behaviors.
You can use tools like Answer the Public, SEMRush, Google Trends, and Google Keyword Planner to gather keyword research. Determine which search queries your customers type into Google. Then, create content based on those queries.
Look for search queries that are posed as questions. Then, answer those questions within your content.
You’ll have an easier time appearing at the top of search engine results pages if your content appeals to the consumer’s needs.
In time, consumers will realize you have the answers they’re looking for. They’ll learn to rely on your experience and expertise. You can establish your credibility and start drawing in more customers.
In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. Personalization can deliver up to eight times the ROI on marketing spend, too!
5. Poor Data Analytics
Once you start updating your online business marketing strategy, don’t make the mistake of neglecting your data. You’ve already established your goals. Make sure you’re tracking your KPIs to determine the success of your campaigns.
Otherwise, you’ll fail to make informed decisions regarding future campaigns. You could continue making the same marketing and advertising mistakes.
Instead, track your KPIs. If you’re not meeting your goals, make a change!
Use data analytics for A/B testing, too. You can determine which headlines, graphics, and CTAs are generating results. Then, you can optimize your campaigns for success in the future.
Set for Success: 5 Online Business Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid ASAP
Making these five online business marketing mistakes could cost you customers. Instead, adjust your marketing strategy to avoid these issues. Avoiding these marketing mistakes can set your online business up for growth and success.
You can get ahead of the competition and start boosting your ROI with ease!
Need help developing your digital marketing strategy? We can lend a hand.
Contact us today to get started.
