The 5 Most Common Mistakes Business Owners Make When They Need Digital Marketing...And What to Do Instead

Deciding to invest in digital marketing is a positive decision. It’s going to bring you better online visibility, more website traffic, more leads, more sales, and more profits. It’s a win-win for your business and your customers, but before you dive in, read this first. 

There are several expensive mistakes business owners make time and again with digital marketing that you should be aware of, to avoid falling into the same trap.

1) Not Defining Your Target Market

Digital marketing is - or should be - a highly targeted discipline. Money is invested in reaching a tightly defined audience with relevant and informative content – to yield qualified warm leads and generate the best ROI. A big mistake business owners make is to attempt to reach as many prospects as possible with broad brush content (as in traditional advertising). For SMEs, this invariably means spreading your budget too thinly and diluting your core value proposition, with disappointing results.

2) Ignoring Social Media

Despite the ubiquity of social media among business decision-makers, many B2B business owners still consider social media to be a primarily B2C concern, or an optional extra ‘if they have time.’ Unfortunately, this approach means you miss out on one of the best channels for engaging with customers in real time without having to spend much money. However well-optimised your website and blog are (more on this shortly), it is well worth investing in an active and value-driven personal profile and company page on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can use your social media channels, and LinkedIn in particular, to share your content, deliver targeted adverts, initiate conversations with prospects, provide responsive customer service, and promote your business online.

3) Not Maintaining An Active Blog

While your business website is the hub for your digital marketing efforts and the source of most of your inbound leads, your blog plays an equally vital role as the primary publishing channel for your marketing content. Blog articles are your opportunity to showcase your expertise by expanding on the information provided in your web content, explaining the value of your products and services for different buyer types, and addressing prospects at different stages of their buyer journey. 

Your blog can include a wide range of written content types, from short company updates to in-depth technical articles – all of which contribute to bolstering your online profile and brand authority. Not everyone enjoys writing a blog and it can be difficult to sustain the momentum required to keep it active, so it’s worth considering working with a content marketing specialist to deliver targeted and relevant content to support your campaign if you don’t have the time to do so yourself.

4) Failing To Track And Analyse Your Leads

Successful digital marketing relies upon accurate data collection and analysis. If you don’t know where your website traffic and leads are coming from – and there are several potential sources for this, such as social media platforms, email marketing, organic keyword searches, PPC, and even off-line referrals – it is hard to optimise your strategy to focus on the most cost-effective and successful channels. In other words, you may be spending more than you need to while still falling short of your potential results.

5) Not Having A Conversion Strategy

Most businesses new to digital marketing have a quiet and obscure website, so understandably the first goal is to boost your search visibility through SEO and increase website traffic. This is essential but is only the first stage of the process. A common mistake among business owners is to focus on increased website traffic at the expense of establishing a systematic conversion strategy, to turn these visitors into leads and then sales. 

Many websites make it unintentionally difficult for visitors to get in touch by not providing clear CTAs and contact forms, for example. Many businesses also fail to follow up on their prospects in a timely or systematic way. Details of website leads are simply passed on to an overworked salesperson to follow up manually, with the result that promising leads go cold before a sale is made. To avoid this, your digital marketing strategy should encompass the entire sales journey, from attracting website visitors to initial contact, and onwards through a process of education and dialogue to the point where you can close the deal. Investing in marketing automation can ensure that an active dialogue is maintained, and all leads are followed up promptly.

Targeted Digital Marketing Support From JDR

JDR are small business digital marketing specialists. We provide targeted support to help customers optimise their marketing investment for the best returns, by choosing the most appropriate tactics for their market. To find out more, please call one of our inbound team today on 01332 343281.

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