5 Mistakes Businesses Make with digital marketing services. I bet you’re doing #3 right now!
We’re all Human.
We all make mistakes.
I’ve seen and experienced some enormous digital marketing services fails. Some so bad, they resulted in entire companies shutting up shop.
We’re going to share some of the top things we’ve learned along the journey, and some of the common mistakes businesses make with their digital marketing services every single day, because its always important to learn from our blunders. This article will help you adjust your sails so your boat cruises like the titanic…without the sinking part…or the iceberg…or the dying people and all that misery. OK…that was a joke, which leads us to common mistake #1.
1. Using the wrong words: Not using professional content creation / SEO copywriting
Words. Yep, WORDS! Watch the words you use. Content is King! More precisely, digital marketing services strategies such as PPC (pay per click) and SEO (search engine optimisation) are really all just words. You are more or less trying to connect with your customer using the alphabet. Think of a Facebook Ad that has led you to read the entire content until the very end. It’s engaging, informative, to-the-point, and rarely takes itself too seriously. It’s almost like that friend we always wish we had.
Now think of a Facebook ad that made you swipe straight past and not read the content. It was probably sounding like a salesman, had poor grammar and no real point or call to action.
The difference in click-through-rates for well written ads is night and day.
We spoke to over 100 business owners this year. Specifically, people who write several hours per week in addition to email. They told us that they spend an average of 30 hours per week reading for work. About 30% is email.
Also, 80% of them said that poorly written material wastes a lot of their time. A majority say that what they read is frequently ineffective because it’s too long, poorly organised, unclear, filled with jargon, and imprecise.
Here’s the lesson: To market your service or product, use clear, simple, direct language. Use “I”, “we,” and “you.” Use clear analogies. Avoid jargon. Describe the impact on customers. Don’t hide who you are or what you mean. If you don’t have extremely strong writing skills, take a writing course or hire a professional digital marketing agency that excels in SEO copywriting and SEO content writing.
If you’ve never heard of the term SEO copywriting before, a copywriter is someone who writes for the internet. They create informative content for businesses that is designed to guide the reader’s own research. Yes, we know its difficult to accept the need to pay for services, however, we have never (really, NEVER) spoken to a client who has converted to professional content creation who hasn’t increased their revenue. The fact is, strong laser focused content always equals more conversions and customers through the metaphorical door. It’s that simple.
If you’re still not convinced, think of it this way. No one wants to pay money to see a concert for an amateur pianist. However, take that same piano and replace the amateur with Beethoven, and you have magic. You have something that people will pay for. The same goes for words and content.
2. Not optimising your website for mobile.
You have a phone. I have a phone. My pet dog has a phone. Point being, we’re all glued to our phones, and increasingly, we are consuming more and more online material using our phones, not computer screens. The current statistics from 2019 shows that 53% of all internet traffic is from mobile. That is a massive 220% increase in traffic in 7 years.
The next big factor in the growth of mobile is 5G. With unrivalled data speeds, 5G will enable more and more applications and services to be used on mobile devices.
What does this mean for your business and digital marketing services?
Poor mobile experiences can turn customers away from your business. 50% of people said they would use a company less often if they did not have a site that’s mobile responsive even if they liked the brand.
How does this impact your customers?
50% of people think that companies don’t care about their business if the website isn’t optimised for mobile users.
So, in summary, it’s not enough to have a website. You must have a mobile friendly responsive website.
3. Not targeting your preferred audience with digital marketing services
As a business owner, i’m sure you’ve taken time to think about who purchases your products. However, are your digital marketing services and strategies targeted and focused on the bulls-eye? Or are you aimlessly throwing darts at the entire board hoping that you hit something?
First, carefully consider (and write down) the demographics of your current and prospective customers. That is your target audience. If you’re not sure what your demographic is, a very good way to collect data on this is to run an open (not targeted) Facebook Ad campaign for a relatively short period. Once complete, have a look at the Facebook audience data. It will tell you who clicked on your ad and their gender, age and locations. This is a good starting point to locking in your target audience.
Here is an example of a Facebook and Instagram Ad campaign we recently ran for a client to show you how it all looks:
You may be shocked at what you find. The demographic that you thought were interested in your product could be completely different. For example, when we began working with a client on their Google Ads Management, they had never invested any time into confirming who their target audience should be. They produced and sold skin care products and they simply assumed they should ONLY target women. When we crunched the numbers, it turned out that 44% of their potential customer base was male!
You can imagine the look on their faces when we told them our results.
They were missing out on 44% of their entire customer base that was searching for their product!
Needless to say, once we implemented our new Google Ads Management strategy for them, their revenue increased literally overnight.
In summary, don’t assume what the target demographic of your product or service is. Collect data, then target that audience. It will translate into higher quality, more relevant leads and increased revenue for your business, not to mention that if you blindly target EVERYONE, you are throwing away your money. Don’t be that guy….or gal. Oops! we just assumed again.
4. Not investing in SEO Services
Your website MUST be optimised for search engines such as Google.
How?
Simply put, customers that are searching for your product or service wont find YOU! They will instead find your competitors.
Here are two mind boggling stats for you:
1) Over 80% of customers perform online research via google before making a purchase.
2) Almost 80% of users NEVER scroll past the first page of google search engine results.
You should of course invest in reputable Google Ads Plans to get to the first page of Google search engine results (SERPs), however, do not ignore SEO!
Why?
Approximately 50% of users ignore paid ads.
So, what this means is that a successful online marketing strategy includes paid ads AND SEO. (We recently compared Google Ads vs SEO in depth). You need to ensure your website contains keywords and phrases that people are searching for. This is part of on page SEO (or on-site SEO). If you want to maximise your traffic and revenue, you need to aim to reach top spot of search engines. Numero Uno! For this, you will need to invest in other SEO factors such as off-page SEO (or off-site SEO) including SEO content writing/SEO copywriting. Both on page SEO and off page SEO are part of any reputable digital marketing agency’s SEO packages and plans.
5. Using Poor Call-To-Actions (CTA) in your Digital Marketing Services
I recently saw a billboard saying “Save 5% when buying this week“. I won’t mention the brand that was advertising this offer, but it got me thinking. Someone really stuffed up here! A large company went to the a very expensive effort to pay for a billboard, design the marketing and implement, but the call-to-action was…well…rubbish.
The problem is, this offer simply isn’t attractive.
It’s a very weak call to action. Making it even worse, the billboard didn’t list the companies website! So what they are essentially saying to people seeing the billboard is “if you want the product, there is no special offer, and you need to dig a little to find our website”. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out that we all wouldn’t be enticed by this marketing.
Ironically, on the same road, another digital billboard said “20% off all orders and free shipping before 31st September“. Oh, and their website and brand logo was impossible to miss. This call to action is significantly more appealing to your customers.
It gives them a strong reason to actually visit your site, and visit it now.
These examples translate directly into your digital marketing services.
How?
71% of websites don’t have call-to-action buttons on their websites.
50% of websites have poorly placed call-to-action buttons which allow a user to find and click on it within 2 seconds.
So, the lesson here is, think carefully, and regularly about your call-to-action, then ensure your digital marketing strategies have them implemented properly on your website design, Google Adwords Management, SEO Services, etc.
Bonus Digital Marketing Services Advice:
Ok, you’ve read this far. You’re in the bonus rounds now. There are of course many other factors to improve your online marketing strategies, but we’ll wrap up this article with the final critical mistake that many businesses make with their digital marketing services.
6. Having a slow website
We’ve all experienced it. You click onto a website link but it takes what seems like forever to load. You get frustrated and close the website. We all want everything NOW, so we all get frustrated easily by slow websites.
We took over the digital marketing services for a law firm this year who spent $15,000 to build their website, but their website took 8 seconds to load. That is FAR too slow. A few crucial errors in the website development execution from their previous agency meant that they had spent all that money, yet were essentially driving customers away from their website because it was simply too frustrating to wait for every page to load. Consequently, their online marketing campaigns simply weren’t translating into new clients.
Once we fixed the speed issues on their website and got the load time to under 1.5 seconds, their leads and enquiries from their website increased by 25% almost instantly.
Why is website speed even a factor for your digital marketing services?
First, in 2010, Google officially announced that load times would be a factor in its search ranking algorithm and confirmed it again recently.
Second, there is a direct correlation between website load times and customer conversions.
For example, in 2007 Amazon discovered a connection between load time and turnover. It was shown that for every 100ms extra loading time, Amazon loses a turnover of 1%. This same principle applies to all websites, with the golden number being 3 seconds. That is the how long it takes for users to get frustrated and abandon your website. So make sure your website design and development is flawless. You don’t want to build your business on poor foundation.
Summary & Conclusion
We’re all human. You don’t need to aim for perfection, but you must aim for progression. That is, if you want to be successful in business. Every mistake you make in your digital marketing is another opportunity at learning what didn’t work. Consequently, you are one step closer to finding what does work.
Don’t be shy to ask for help from a digital marketing agency Sydney. We’ve eaten our humble pie many a time. So you get the benefit of not having to waste time and money making the same mistakes. Just make sure you pick the right digital marketing company!
SureTech
02 8625 5118
Summary & Conclusion
There are many more soft and hard skills to learn to be an authentic modern successful company and to authentically digitally market your product. Just remember, an honest and trusted company is a popular company, whereas dishonest companies will always fail regardless of their tactics or strategies. With real authenticity comes a sense of liberation and freedom. Being true to yourself and your customers relieves anxiety that many of us hold onto without even realising. It negates the need for you and your company to maintain a facade. Imagine what this reduced anxiety and stress can help you and your company achieve? Perhaps one day, we can all be as chilled and relaxed as 420doggface208 while sipping on some delicious cranberry juice.
SureTech Pty Ltd
02 8625 5118
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