Did you know that nearly 58% of American adults have researched a product online before buying it?
It’s clear that the internet has become an essential tool for commerce. Small and big businesses alike have taken advantage of the internet as a marketing tool.
But, as a small business, it can be easy to face issues when marketing online. How can you avoid these pitfalls?
We’re here to help you out! Check out our guide below to learn six mistakes in marketing online and how to avoid them!
1. Attempting Every Strategy at Once
If your small business is new to digital marketing, you might want to attempt a variety of marketing methods at once. However, this can often be counter-productive.
If you run too many different campaigns at once, you’ll have trouble tracking your progress. How will you know which strategies brought about success? Which strategies were fruitless?
It’s wise to focus on 2-3 different methods at once. This will make tracking and analyzing your results much easier.
2. Losing Time: Spreading Yourself Too Thin
Small businesses often have a small staff, many of whom work several different positions for the company. A mistake small businesses make is spreading themselves too thin, which will result in burnout.
To prevent this, small businesses should automate at least some of their marketing campaigns. Automation saves time, ensures things are posted on schedule, and prevents burnout. These benefits will allow your marketing staff to focus on bigger projects and ideas.
3. Ignoring Mobile Users
91% of internet users use their mobile devices to go online. If your marketing campaign isn’t targeted in part towards mobile users, you’ll be missing out on an enormous chunk of your audience.
As a small business, you may not have the biggest digital marketing budget. However, even if you don’t have the fanciest website, you can’t forget to make it mobile-friendly.
4. Careless Mistakes in Marketing Online: Spamming Customers
While it can be tempting to contact customers every day, be mindful of how you market to your audience. Sending content just for the sake of sending it will not earn you any brownie points.
Unsurprisingly, 46% of email unsubscriptions were due to excessive email frequency. Instead of spamming your audience, create high-quality content that you can send out monthly or bi-weekly.
5. Marketing to No One
As a small business, you might think that the best strategy would be to appeal to everyone. However, you need to secure the attention of your target audience before you attempt to branch out to other demographics.
In order to market successfully, one has to know who their target audience is. If you’re a small business creating marketing campaigns, you have to personalize it for your audience.
If you haven’t created a buyer persona yet, you’re making a big mistake. Collecting and analyzing data on your audience is the best way to understand to whom you’re marketing.
6. Disregarding SEO
Let’s be honest—hardly any of us bother clicking links beyond the first page of browser results. The same goes for your customers.
In order to appear on the first page of search engine results, it’s crucial that you utilize search engine optimization (SEO). Without using keywords and phrases, you’re missing out on website traffic and new leads.
This is one of the biggest mistakes in marketing online that small businesses face, especially if they are new to blogging and website management. However, it can be avoided through keyword research and implementation.
Getting Started
Digital marketing must be approached differently for every business. However, the mistakes in marketing online outlined above should be avoided by every business. With that in mind, your small business can get started with a successful marketing campaign of its own!
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