3 Digital Marketing Mistakes You Should Be Careful About in 2015

As the year 2015 progresses, the message is loud and clear. Digital marketing is here to stay and is consistently becoming an important consideration of marketing budget for most companies. Companies now are spending equal amounts for TV and on digital. So what now? Well if your website is not fulfilling the latest developments or you are not doing Content Marketing or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or else developing some strategy for Search Engine Marketing, you might well start doing so. However, buying into the hype of different digital jargons seen online or on social media without a true understanding of the results of digital marketing efforts may turn your marketing effort into a damp squib without the expected results. Here are the 3 biggest mistakes in digital marketing often made by most companies.

Mistake 1: Poor Planning

One biggest mistake that is made in digital marketing is the absence of an organized cohesive strategy, resulting in a waste of valuable time and money, not to mention the loss of opportunity. Before investing, you should plan the following for effective digital marketing:

· Understand your market: A sound understanding of a brand’s competitors, customer demographics, geographical boundaries, existing distribution channel, and knowledge of market trends (both about the product and demographic).

· Perform a SWOT analysis: Find your opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses.

· Clear definition of your marketing objectives: What results you are looking for with your marketing efforts and what KPI’s and goals will you use for measuring success?

· Have a budget: What is your budget for this marketing effort and what are the individual marketing channels?

Mistake 2: Unrealistic Expectations

It should be noted at the very outset that digital should not be taken to mean instant results, especially with companies who are new to this digital marketing practice. In fact, it takes some time for digital campaigns to develop, optimize and improve to get the results you expect for. It is imperative that clients are given realistic expectations. Here are the average timelines per service offered:

Pay Per Click Campaign: 90 days.

Search Engine Optimization: 90 – 180 days.

Social Media: 30 days.

Mistake 3: Not Being Informed

The presence of new analytics software makes it easy to track and analyze every view, every click and every dollar. However, what is important is to be informed about how the marketing budget is being spent by the company. So if a marketing agency is working for a brand, important data points should be known to key stakeholders. Hence, if it is a PPC campaign, you should have the knowledge of how to log into AdWords and also be able to check the account history as well as follow any account modifications. This should be true with the different digital aspects. You should have a fair knowledge of the KPI’s, the terms and best practices.

If you don’t have the time to go through learning materials, hire a consultant who could run audits and help in removing unqualified work. This will keep the primary marketing agency and staff on their toes and save you money.

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