Digital marketing is the presentation of products, goods and services using internet / online facilities in such a way that they are desirable and acceptable. It all revolves around the use of electronics and internet platforms by companies and business owners to promote their activities. Even though digital marketing operates with internet facilities together with all its inherent benefits, yet it is also exposed and not shielded from the several dangers and pitfalls that trail business endeavours including the internet businesses. So in this piece we are set to point out some of the mistakes that could expose us to these dangers, which must be avoided as online marketers.
- Lack of Current and Updated Information on the Website : In digital marketing, current and updated information is a life line for the business. For any digital marketer to survive and also excel, he must have an attractive and up to date website. The website must be a kind of blog that is not only creative but also interactive to the customers and site visitors.
The volume of traffic the website attracts is key for success, and so it would only be reasonable for any serious digital marketer to be creative enough to ensure that the website is consistently filled with very current and updated articles and pieces of information that will keep attracting people, customers and seekers of information. When ever a blogger becomes lazy and conceited, forgetting or neglecting to update the information on his website he is bound to fail. This mistake and the inherent failure that comes with it is avoidable, by being diligent to do the necessary research and readings necessary to equip the blogger to update his blog consistently with current information and attractive pieces that will make people and his customers to be rushing to visit his website.
- Not Ensuring that the Website is Mobile Friendly: Having a website and marketing campaigns that are not adaptable and easily accessible to mobile phone users could become a big barrier between a blogger and his customers. This is because almost every one uses a mobile phone. It is very convenient and easy for people to try to do their online activities from their mobile telephones or handset. So any successful digital marketing endeavour must ensure that users of mobile facilities are considered and that the website, marketing campaigns, and other contents of the website are mobile user friendly. Not considering or overlooking mobile customers will amount to a regrettable action by any blogger or a digital marketer. That a blogger have created a website is not all that he needed. The website needs to be optimized for mobile devices. This is because bad mobile experiences can turn many customers away from the site, and this could be very dangerous. The entire digital / online business has its advantage hinged on the volume of people it can reach in a short while, so if these same people we ought to reach, a large number of them is scared away by the mistake of not considering the use of mobile facility, that will be really bad for the business.
- No Attractive Deals and Promotions : In every human endeavour, people are looking for benefits. To be able to attract and keep the human traffic that is needed to succeed in digital marketing, the business owner, company or blogger should be able to offer attractive deals and promotions that can keep the people coming. The digital campaigns also should be able to offer good deals and promotional benefits to attract the attention and interest of the customer.
Make every possible effort to offer discounts, promotions and coupons to encourage patronage and get people to your doors and website. Offering discounts and any other form of promotion will increase traffic to the store, web page and ad campaigns. Promotions will surely attract more people, and will usually help increase sales, as well. By offering discount, Coupons and other promotions, you are also building a stronger relationship with your customers. Majority of people will visit any business entity again after they have enjoyed a discount, redeemed a coupon or enjoyed any other form of promotion. Discounts and other promotions are a great way to acquire new customers and retain the current ones. Discounts, Coupons and Promotions create customer loyalty. Reward the customers and create more rewards for the business through more patronage.
- Not Checking or Measuring the Expenses of Digital Marketing : When you don’t measure how much is spent in digital campaigns and activities as well as how much that comes in as returns (Return On Investments), then the business is obviously heading for trouble. It is a grave mistake, not only in digital marketing but any business endeavour for any one to just be spending money on activities without measuring what was spent in comparison with the returns such activities are bringing in.
For any responsible business person, in this instance any serious blogger, a few questions are very paramount in this regard; How much money are my spending on my online marketing strategies and activities? What kind of return are my getting?. We should not just blindly throw money at digital marketing strategies or activities without measuring the return on investment. If we don’t measure the ROI, we won’t know how successful our strategy or activity was. Unsuccessful campaigns and activities can start creating serious losses in our account if we keep repeating them. We need to continue with what is working and either abandon or modify what is not working. There are different strategies we can employ to determine the return on investment of our digital marketing activities. Here are a few different examples of what we can check:
- What is the volume of traffic?
- How many leads?
- What is the click-through rates?
- What is the rate of conversions or actual sales?
- What is the exact amount spent in the campaign?
As soon as you can determine the above issues about the campaign, you can calculate your ROI. Take the financial gain from your investment and subtract the cost of your investment. Divide that number by the total cost of your investment. That is how you calculate ROI. Do not make the mistake of not determining the ROI of all of your marketing campaigns moving forward. It is the only way to know if your strategy and digital marketing activities was successful.
- Not Having Specific Targets : In digital marketing as in any other business endeavours, knowing your target customer is key. Those who want to excel in digital marketing and in fact any other business, must follow a time tested rule, and that is to know your target audience and market very well. In the course of marketing your products or services, it is essential to know your target customer’s personality, needs, and likes. Every marketing strategy and activities need to be in line with who your target customers are. It is not correct to say you are targeting every body when it comes to digital marketing. You need to narrow your target market. Consider the demographics of your current and prospective customers, that is who you need to be targeting. When you identify your target market and identify their problem, then you will know exactly the problem you are set out to solve and how to go about it.
- Not Using the Advantages of Videos and Motion Pictures : Among the facilities available on the digital and online platforms, the ones that use videos and motion pictures always attract more traffic than any other. Platforms like YouTube attract billions of visitors on a daily bases.
It is obvious that Videos seems to attract the attention of more readers much more than written content does attract. This means that as a marketer, you should be interested in creating videos and include them in your content marketing strategy. However there are things you should consider. You need to consider the duration of the video, creativity, etc. The video in some cases should have only a duration of about 60 seconds. Social media platforms such as Twitter can allow you to post videos of length more than 60 seconds. At this point, you must remember that you should know the type of videos that appeals to your target market and audience or what will really meet their needs. You must also ensure that the creativity of the video is not in doubt. It is best to create different types of content instead of sticking to one type of content. There are variety of videos like; animated videos, explainer videos, funny videos, and many other varieties. YouTube offers one of the best platforms to post videos. It also allows longer duration videos than any other platform.
- Not Converting Web Traffic to Sales : It is not enough for a digital marketer that you have xyz number of people visiting the your website. The bottom line must be that these visitors are able to become active customers who patronises our campaigns or what ever we are presenting in our websites. Most often it is when people are able to visit a website a second or third time that they are able to patronise or buy into the presentations and campaigns of the website. The chances are so slim that first time visitors to the website would become instant buyers. If repeated visit is key to converting website visitors to actual buyers, then the online /digital marketer must brace up with the challenge of making his blog attractive and compelling to the visitor such that he wants to visit again until he is able to patronise what the website is presenting. There many things that could make people not repeat their visits to a website which include: Clumsy websites that are not is easy to navigate. Most website visitors do not continue on the web page because they cannot easily navigate within the web page and also because they could not find what they were looking for. If the website page has a confusing layout, the website visitors would simply quit. If for instance you have an e-commerce page, you must ensure that there are many search options and filters so that the users can easily find what they are looking for and then make a purchase. Consumers are often impatient and don’t want to waste so much time scrolling and searching. Every one prefers faster and effective results.
Conclusion: Let us conclude this piece by reiterating that digital marketing is exposed to dangers and disasters when certain mistakes are made. So if the digital marketer can be careful to avoid or overcome these mistakes listed in this write-up and may be others that could emerge in the course of the business, he can be assured of a successful endeavour in digital / online transactions.