7 Digital Marketing Mistakes To Avoid That Firms Keep Making

Making digital marketing mistakes is a part of the online landscape for businesses and even creators so recognizing them and taking action can be difficult.  One of the hardest things to do is to recognize how to grow, when to move forward with a solid plan, and executing of those ideas.

When it comes to the marketing department of a legacy or older company, some of those same issues apply which is why many are so behind when it comes to digital marketing.  If you’ve worked at one of those firms, you know that it’s very difficult to make the transition to something new because of previous success using traditional methods.

You also understand how important the different technologies are because you are using them daily if you are checking your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter mobile apps.  Knowing that your firm’s digital marketing mistakes are currently being exposed might be very costly and could have long-lasting ramifications in the future.

Here are 7 digital marketing mistakes to avoid that your company or brand continuously makes that needs correction ASAP:

1. Deliverables Aren’t Aligning With Current & Future Results

Look on any job boards such as Indeed, Monster, Linkedin, etc. and do a search on “Digital Marketing Manager.”  You will see thousands of results for jobs in this field that pay great with nice benefits.

When you read the job descriptions and look at the requirements the majority of them seem to say the right things such as, “Execute Facebook Campaigns…”  But yet as soon as you go to their main website there isn’t a Facebook pixel anywhere on their platform.

This is very problematic that a company who is already using Facebook ads doesn’t have the proper tracking code on their website to initiate valuable analytic information about potential customers.  If the deliverables don’t align with your current situation then how can you expect it to do so in the future? This could very well be a clear sign of playing roulette with your marketing budget!

2. Realistic Digital Marketing Strategy Not Embraced

There are some in the business world who believe that “being on social media” is the key to success.  They are blinded by numbers and false actions such as followers, likes, comments, etc. which are the gateway to confusion.

A vast amount of those people don’t realize that a well-planned digital marketing strategy has to be embraced by the decision-makers.  It doesn’t matter if it fails or the perception of it not succeeding at the beginning isn’t that important as I will explain next as long as your team will grasp the blueprint.

3. Lacks The Understanding That A/B Testing Is Required

Another mistake that your organization makes is not fully understanding that A/B testing of search and social campaigns is a must.  Failure of your campaigns is non-existent because of the testing of a multitude of content types that will be required.

At this stage is where your team will determine what works and what doesn’t using a very small amount of the budget.  What’s more important is the behavior of consumers regarding different content and how it’s portrayed to them. Through analytics from search and social like Google and Facebook, your team will receive lots of feedback from testing multiple audiences.

4. Execution Is Lackluster At Best

For many firms, it can become quite difficult to carry out a digital strategy with presumably so many moving parts. What may seem to be a sense of excitement, in the beginning, may turn out to be completely uninspiring because the plan isn’t implemented properly.

Lack of knowledge, support, manpower and so many other responsibilities surrounded by a manager or specialist can attribute to poor execution of a digital marketing plan.  There are many different ways for a company to accomplish these goals and starting with the recognition of internal forces should be a good starting point.

5. Refusal To Commit Appropriate Funds

Many organizations are making a huge mistake by not allocating suitable funding to their digital marketing strategy.  Decision-makers are constantly ignoring this because of the success of either traditional ways that have built their companies or because the last quarter showed growth without it.

I’m in constant amazement at the lack of proper capitalization in the lifeblood of a company especially when it presumably has the wherewithal to make the adjustment.  Current and potential customers are consuming information much differently and you must have the ability to capture their attention.

6. Legacy Decision Making Is Extremely Slow

The old-school way of making decisions needs to catch up with technology before it’s too late.  The days of running every single idea through your chairman, board of directors, and investors should come to a complete halt.  There needs to be more trust organizationally to make decisions that will help grow a company and build more brand awareness.

Deciding to start a podcast or produce consistent videos for the company’s YouTube and Instagram accounts shouldn’t need approval two months from now.  Fast decisions are needed through the appropriate channels because your competitors are taking full advantage of these same strategies.

7. Acceptance To Change Has Become Difficult

It is so difficult for an organization to accept change because of past results.  “Corporate Stubbornness” can plague an entire company all the way until it becomes a shell of itself.  Have you ever heard of Blockbuster Video? Or does the name Bear-Stearns ring a bell? Though both companies had different core reasons for their demise, the two shared an inability to adapt to change.

We can probably all agree that technology is extremely fast-paced and is at the center of growth for almost every company globally.  Why can’t we agree to accept changes needed throughout the organization to lessen digital marketing mistakes to grow sales and the overall brand of the company?

Correcting These Mistakes Swiftly & Future Results Will Tell If Your Organization Will Stand The Test Of Time…