5 online marketing mistakes that prevent business growth

The online world has changed drastically over the years since the dawn of the Internet!  In a similar fashion, the manner in which we present and market our businesses online has to reflect that our business is moving with the times.  Whether you are a budding or an established entrepreneur to a serious marketer, if we fail to keep up to date and adjust to the marketing trends, your business, most likely, will suffer the consequences.  If you are attempting your own online marketing, here are 5 online marketing mistakes to avoid.

1.  Spam commenting

You may think that posting generic comments with links to your website on other blogs, social media posts and within forums may raise the visibility of your website and help with backlinks.  The truth is that online users are very smart and see right through this.  Online users get annoyed with this tactic and quickly learn to ignore your comments as it is considered “spam” (online swear word).  The end result is that your website’s SEO is impacted;  your customers and potential customers have a negative brand experience and your business struggles to find real online growth.

There are ways and means to still benefit from this type of online marketing – by making useful and valuable contributions and following the rules.  Here is where online marketing experts can help.

2.  Traditional vs online marketing

Online and offline marketing are two very different marketing platforms and what may work well offline, may not have the same results online. Traditional and print marketing targets a geographical area, whereas with online marketing you can speak to a diverse market and reach beyond the boundaries of geography. It is important to be strategic with your online marketing and adjust to being relevant to a larger audience.

Research and insight could help you optimize your audience reach with the correct content.

3.  Multiple personality disorders

In the same breath, you cannot have separate brand identities for online and offline platforms. You need to ensure that you don’t confuse your audience and that you speak with one voice. Adjusting content does not mean changing your brand values, but rather communicating the same message in a different way.

Create a strategy with guidelines around the use of your brand, from how the visual brand elements are to be used, to the tone of voice, fonts and graphics and how they will be used so that you have a consistent brand voice that your customers learn to identify and trust.

Create a strategy and guideline around the use of your brand, it’s voice, it’s identity and use a brand strategy around identity, voice A strategy around your brand identity, voice, and guidelines for both online and offline

4.  Not getting on the blog bandwagon

 

Blogs and bloggers are everywhere and there are ample reasons for this. You may consider that adding a blog to your website is a waste of time or requires too much effort, but in reality, integrating a blog onto your website not only looks professional, but it adds fresh content. Every time you update content, Google recognizes that your website is active and useful. This is a very simple tactic for boosting your SEO.

Blogging on a consistent basis requires commitment as frequency along with creating relevant and valuable content is key to your online success. If you are not comfortable with blogging, you could easily provide relevant topics to an online marketing agency who could assist you with your blog content.

5.  Failing to analyse your metrics

Online marketing makes it easy collect, measure and analyse your return on investment. Analytics and data help you identify what works and what doesn’t and provides insight into your audience behavior, their likes, dislikes, and where they spend their time. This information can help you to establish what online marketing tactics you should invest more time and effort in to optimize your website or social platforms so that your online marketing and business goals can be achieved.

Social media analytics helps you understand your audience behaviour and what content they are responsive to. Google Analytics helps you measure what content on your website works well and helps you measure traffic to your website and the source of this traffic.

Over to you:

What mistakes are you or did you make when you first started marketing your business via the internet and what changes have you implemented and seen the good results of?

Ignite Media is a marketing and sales agency helping business succeed online.  Contact us today, we will help you overcome your digital marketing challenges, build credibility, revenue and look good!