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10 Online Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Online marketing is one of the fastest and most effective ways to reach as many potential customers as possible. But online marketing can also be tricky. Not only are there many principles to know, but things like social media platforms are always changing, making it hard to keep up. It’s important to stay ahead of the game: if your online marketing strategy is not effective, you’re not only wasting your time, but you’re also wasting your money. The best way to nail online marketing and lead your business to success is by knowing what NOT to do. 

1. Not Selling Your Website Hard Enoughsite on a laptop, tablet, and phone.

There’s no getting around it: you need a website. Think about it, when you google restaurants or businesses in your area, you will usually overlook any business that does not have a website and quickly move on to the next listing. But you can’t simply create a website and then forget about it,  you have to properly invest in it and market it. Create your brand by defining your purpose on your website, designing an eye-catching logo, and consistently producing content that is useful and interesting to your clientele. Don’t forget to focus on SEO, so that you’re driving quality traffic to your website – and always link back to your site in emails and on social media posts! 

2. Misidentifying Your Target Audience

If you’re not targeting the right audience, you’re going to end up overspending without getting a good return on investment. Having a lot of people visit your site is great, but if they are not the right audience, they will not turn into customers. First stop, think about your brand, and figure out who your audience is, so you can tailor your marketing to them. This is where good SEO also comes into play, so it is important to become familiar with how SEO linking increases not only the quantity but also the quality of traffic to your site.  

3. Only Relying On Paid Advertising

laptop with graphs on it and money over it and a calculator in front of the laptop

Many businesses only spend their marketing dollars on paid advertisements. While this is the fastest way to drive the right traffic to your website, and a great way to generate more visibility for your brand and business, it is not the only avenue you should invest in. Remember, paid advertisements have no long-term residual benefits. Take a portion of your budget and put it towards developing high-quality content with good SEO linking, social media posting, email  campaigns, and website and landing page improvements.

4. Using Clickbait

If you resort to using clickbait, don’t expect to convert many leads. Clickbait makes products or information sound appealing to customers, but customers are smart, and they know clickbait when they, well, click on it! Sure, you might get some interest from some people, but more people will see through it and be annoyed by it, which will only end up ruining your brand’s reputation and credibility. Tell people exactly what they can expect when they click on your posts, and you’ll know you’re reaching the right audience.   

5. Not Collecting Emailsyellow envelopes coming towards a laptop screen.

Email marketing is a great way to get more information about your brand to potential customers.  Give them an easy way to subscribe to your mailing list, and send out regular emails that are appealing to your target audience. If they like your content and what you have to offer, they will want to learn more, and will possibly share your content with others. 

6. Selling Too Soon

While email marketing is a useful tool, sending out a sales email immediately after getting information from a potential customer can scare them away and lead them to unsubscribe from your emails. Don’t jump into your sales pitch right away; instead, you should be producing and sending out content that they will want to read. Eventually, after establishing a relationship, you can begin subtly mentioning what you can offer to them. The most important thing is not to come off as pushy. 

7. Setting Unrealistic Goals

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to set unrealistic goals for the results of your marketing campaigns. This will only lead to disappointment and discouragement. Don’t expect your business to attract a million potential customers each year, and to convert all of them into  sales! Rather, set realistic goals to get a certain number of potential customers to sign up for your email list, clicks on your posts, or lead conversions per month, for example.

8. Automating Your Responses on Social Media

chatbot with a headset on and a speech bubble next to it.

One thing to avoid at all costs is automated responses on social media. People want to talk to you, not a robot. Using a chatbot on your website is fine for expediting your interactions with customers, but do not attempt to have one on your social media pages. Instead, work on sending  personal messages to everyone who leaves you comments on social media, thanking them for reaching out to you. You will ultimately build better relationships – and make more sales.

9. Not Measuring ROI

Studies show that more than half of all insurance agents do not measure the return on investment they are getting for the money that they put into online marketing. This can be a costly mistake. The best way to actually get a return on investment is to know what is working for you and what isn’t. You can do this by using tools to measure your ROI. There are a lot of tools out there to help you do this; for example, Google Analytics is a great tool that can help you measure your digital marketing ROI, so you’ll know if you’re putting money in the wrong places, simply breaking even, or hopefully getting a healthy ROI! 

10. Only Using One Form Of Communicationtorso of a man in a suit pointing at an email button which is next to a phone button, tablet button and mail button.

Having a blog or sending out regular emails are great ways to get your target audiences’ attention, but you shouldn’t stop there. Don’t expect everyone to want to read your content; instead, give them the opportunity to listen to it in a podcast or watch it in a video, for example. Investing in producing multiple types of media might just get you the ROI you’re looking for!

About The Author: Cassandra Love

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