Every day, marketing agencies, brands and advertisers make marketing mistakes. Even those who are trained, have been working in the industry for years or are seasoned experts. Teams working together can make assumptions someone’s got something covered when they haven’t, or a brand can be so focussed on one type of marketing, other opportunities may not even be on their radar. Everyone is human and it’s easy to make an error but by being aware of the common marketing mistakes listed below, you can avoid these hiccups and even adopt new processes into your digital marketing campaigns to bypass any glitches altogether.
1. Placing Acquisition Over Retention
Many brands concentrate on gaining new customers and seeing the numbers of likes, followers and conversions taking place. But many don’t place enough energy into customer retention to ensure consumers return. Not only will adding a retention strategy in place see more customers returning and buying from you again and again but loyal customers who trust your business become, over time, brand ambassadors, spreading positive word of mouth and sharing news about their latest purchase with their friends, family and contacts. Putting a retention plan into place will encourage further brand loyalty and gain you additional exposure – not to mention free advertising – in the long run.
Focus on nudging customers who may need a little extra TLC or convincing before purchasing, for example, those who leave items in their digital shopping baskets, so potential leads aren’t left feeling neglected.
2. Forgetting About Mobile Users
The introduction of responsive website design has meant that mobile users’ experience has vastly improved so they’re now able to enjoy a similar online experience as those on a computer or laptop. But many brands still haven’t included mobile users as a key factor in their marketing plans, leaving a large group of users excluded.
Anyone with a mobile phone has instant access to many apps, programs and websites. If your website isn’t mobile responsive, that is the elements on the page don’t scale down or it is hard to navigate on a small device without a computer mouse, it’s unlikely a user will utilise it or return due to poor user experience. Take advantage of mobile marketing so this group of untapped users won’t be turned away.
3. Setting Unrealistic KPIs
Setting goals and objectives are a key part of any marketing campaign. But unrealistic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can hold you back from success. KPIs include information you monitor to determine whether a marketing strategy or project has been successful and generally fall under three categories: financial, social media interactions and website performance. Setting your sights too high or expecting results too quickly can see a spiral of unachievable marketing campaigns, wasted investment and squandered time. Instead of setting unrealistic KPIs, consider the value of long-lasting customer relationships and create SMART targets (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) to measure performance.
4. Not Tracking ROI
In addition to setting SMART targets (see above), it’s essential to measure your return on investment (ROI) when it comes to the marketing campaigns themselves. Are you wildly throwing money at every strategy going in the hope that something sticks? It’s important to determine the ROI of each campaign and analyse what is working well, and what strategies should be abandoned. As a rule of thumb looking at leads, conversions, click-through rates and general web traffic are used as a baseline for a good return on investment, but your own opinion on a successful ROI may be based on social interactions or more specific results.
5. Too Many Marketing Strategies
Another example of a marketing mistake is undertaking too many marketing strategies. This is a misjudgment from many brands and advertisers, old and new, as new technologies and consumer trends provide exciting new opportunities to reach customers online. Spreading yourself too thinly means not having the ability to concentrate on the marketing processes that work most effectively. Not to mention you’ll only dilute your cash flow. Stick with what works best and trial new campaign ideas in a limited way if you need to watch the pennies.
6. Focusing On The Wrong Audience
Similarly to focusing on the wrong marketing strategy, many businesses spend too much time focusing on the wrong audience. It’s easy to think that the broader the audience you target that the more success you’ll have, the bigger your brand will get and the more recognition you’ll receive.
Unfortunately, a broad marketing campaign can have the opposite effect as you target many people who are simply not your ideal demographic and have little to no interest in your product or services. Instead, it’s important to provide relevant content to interested people. Broad marketing campaigns can be both a waste of time and money, and merely put your brand in front of the wrong audience. Test and trial your marketing methods using demographics data and analytics. Then determine who and where your audience is, and how best to reach them.
To have a positive impact on your approach to marketing and to keep customer retention, develop a comprehensive marketing strategy with simple steps and achievable targets. Focus on your successes, keep your objectives in mind and remember everyone slips up sometimes. It’s getting back up and carrying on after a marketing mistake that will help create a marketing strategy to be proud of. What steps will you be adding (or subtracting) from your future marketing campaigns?
