Digital marketing is an umbrella term that refers to marketing activities that use digital technology; it includes internet marketing, email marketing, SMS marketing, and display advertising. With digital marketing, brands or products and services are promoted via electronic media.
A great digital marketing strategy will incorporate an array of digital mediums for connecting with consumers; at minimum, a savvy business will have a social media presence and a strategy for email and SMS marketing.
Not all campaigns are equal; even the most experienced marketers will sometimes run a campaign that doesn’t yield the expected or desired result. Below are some digital marketing mistakes that you should seek to avoid:
- Failure to have a clear Campaign Goal
You need to establish your goals before you begin. How else will you be able to track the outcome of your campaign? Goals to be defined include sales, sign ups and subscriptions, enquiries, etc. It’s near impossible to measure your return on investment and campaign benefit without having measurable objectives from the outset.
- Failure to Target your Audience
Proper target audience identification is a critical first step in the establishment of your business. Your content needs to be created to appeal to and capture the attention of your target audience – so define this audience on their demographics as well as their online behaviours. Put yourself in their shoes and create your campaign with them in mind.
- Inadequate Personalisation
All offers and correspondence must be personalised appropriately. Know who you are communicating with and personalise your communications accordingly.
- Overlooking Email Marketing
Yes, email has been around longer than mobile and social media. It is still a powerful communication channel and marketing tool. The vast majority of adult consumers still like receiving professional email correspondence from the businesses they patronise.
- Ignoring Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is the way of the future; it’s currently a dominant digital platform and carries immediacy unlike any other channel. How do your customers already interact with you via mobile? Work from this to deliver mobile content that is relevant, timely, and valuable to them. And remember to optimise your website for mobile.
- Failure to Have a Social Media Presence
Social media offers businesses an unprecedented opportunity for lead generation. The sky is literally the limit for exposure of a brand on social media – so make sure you have a brand profile and that you listen and engage as well as broadcast on the platform.
- Buying followers on Social Media
This is a major digital marketing faux pas. There is no point having thousands of followers if they are not authentic – they won’t be lead generators for you, and people can tell if you have fake followers. Fake followers just make a profile appear fraudulent – don’t do it.
- Failure to Respond to an Abandoned Shopping Cart
You want consumers to close and complete all sales on your website. Any abandoned shopping cart should be followed up on – in case the consumer got distracted, sidelined, or simply forgot to come and complete their purchase.
- Failure to Measure your Results
Make sure your efforts are not in vain. Analyse and measure your results and return on investment. What works? What doesn’t? Use this information to inform and create your future campaigns.
ClickSend is a first-class, Australian-based business communication gateway and we can help you primarily with SMS marketing and email marketing, as well as offering other services. Create appealing and successful SMS and email campaigns with us to engage your target customer. Call or email us today.
