Digital Marketing mistakes are costly. How to avoid them.

In this age of digital transformation, we all have seen how fast everything moves and digital marketing is no exception. We are so caught up with catching the next tech, the next change that we often forget to look and learn from the mistakes of the past.

If you notice the same issues coming up with your digital marketing campaigns, time and time again, it is evaluation time. You should really pay attention to your process. Being aware of the most common digital marketing mistakes can help ensure your brand avoids them in the future. Considering that, I’m going to share some of the biggest mistakes brands usually make with their digital marketing.

1. Not Setting Goals

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

This famous saying is directly linked to digital marketing campaigns. If you don’t set goals before starting your campaign and directly jump into executing your campaign, you almost ensure the failure of your campaigns.

How do I do it?

I begin with establishing the objectives of my campaign. I outline a set of measurable goals that support each of my objectives. I know that without goals I’d never be able to measure the success of my campaign or identify which areas need improvement. And if I cannot measure and show progress, I won’t be able to justify future digital marketing investment.

2. Ignoring Analytics

Digital marketing campaigns are like those spouses that require constant pampering. You cannot ‘set it and forget it’. Your campaigns need constant maintenance and evaluation — that means checking in regularly to measure performance. This involves tweaking your campaigns after assessing which marketing copy, artwork or offers in your ads get the best results.

For example, the channel that provides the highest volume of traffic may provide the lowest quality of leads, so looking just at referring traffic won’t give you a holistic understanding of performance.

3. Not Testing Enough

Don’t underestimate the importance of testing. Ongoing testing is crucial to the success of your digital marketing. As I said before, if you try to ‘set it and forget it’, you’re ensuring your campaign to fail. On the other, if you’re monitoring your campaign analytics continuously, you’ll be on top of your game and ready to optimise your campaigns as you go.

We all jump to conclusions about why something is or ins’t working without doing the proper legwork to find out for sure. Don’t make quick judgements without properly testing and understanding the real causes. Make testing a priority and ensure that your marketing spends are put to good use and campaigns are given the best chance to succeed.

4. Catching Every Hot New Trend

Digital marketing is exciting, isn’t it. There is always something new happening and all of us get excited to catch that next big wave and try that hot new trend. Staying up-to-date and on top of new trends is an absolute must in digital marketing, but you must not assume that just because a certain platform or technology is trendy, you should automatically add it to your marketing mix. It is a bad idea to blindly follow the latest trends without first understanding how their implementation will benefit your brand.

5. Not Understanding Your Audience

In digital marketing, AUDIENCE is everything. If you don’t understand who you’re speaking to, even the most carefully crafted campaigns would fall flat. Maybe you wrote a catchy ad headline that in your opinion sounds amazing, but if it doesn’t resonate with your actual target, the ad WILL NOT bring any results.

You must spend time getting to know your audience, people you’re speaking to. What are their pain points? What keeps them awake at night. What appeals to them? What kind of language do they understand? What kind of tone and words do they use to describe what they are looking for? Having the answers to these questions is the key to creating campaigns that will reach the people you’re targeting and GUARANTEE the SUCCESS OF YOUR CAMPAIGNS.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amber is the Co-founder and Digital Director at TET Digital, a branding and digital marketing agency in Dubai. She helps businesses make the most of their online marketing budget.