Digital marketing is both an art and a science. You need to be creative and equally analytical to come up with new ideas that will help you stand out from the crowd.
If done right, online marketing will give your business countless opportunities to increase brand awareness and generate leads that convert into sales. Unfortunately, many companies do not know what marketing strategies to implement or how to do it, thus hurting their businesses in the long run. 
But worry not, as here are six of the most common digital marketing mistakes and how to get it right for your business instead. 

Hiring the Wrong Digital Marketing Agency

Choosing a digital marketing agency is a vital decision. After all, they will be responsible for pushing your brand online.
Business owners often choose an agency based on price or a personal connection without caring if it fits their purpose. Such decisions might hurt your company down the road.
When choosing an online marketing company, you need to pick one with enough experience in your industry to provide you with the type of services you need. 
A successful agency, such as Online Marketing Gurus, should be able to show how they helped past clients achieve specific goals such as increasing sales revenue or attracting more website traffic. Moreover, they should be willing to provide you with client references to prove their success rate. 

Avoiding Social Media

Social media is among the most influential tools in a digital marketer’s toolkit and the most commonly misused. Too often, businesses consider it as an afterthought or something that can be delegated to an intern.
But if you want to get the most out of social media, you need to treat it as a strategic marketing channel. 
Before diving into it, start by identifying your goals and target audience. You will then need to find a platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn that will work best for your strategy and business. 
After setting your socials, create and post content that provides value to your followers. Don’t forget to engage with your users regularly by addressing their concerns in the comments section. 

Ignoring Mobile Device Users

Globally, people are using their mobile devices more than ever to access the internet. Statistics show that about 60% of global website traffic is now from mobile users.
Google also ranks mobile-friendly sites higher on the search engine results pages. So, if your website is not optimized for mobile users, you’re missing out on a huge portion of your potential audience.
While your site may load just fine on desktop computers, it might be riddled with broken links or unreadable text when viewed on a smartphone or a tablet. To solve this problem, use responsive design techniques. 
Responsive design techniques will enable your website to adjust automatically to fit any screen size without making the text difficult to read. 

Not Having an SEO Strategy

Any business that wants to stay visible online must take search engine optimization seriously. Without SEO, your website will be buried on page 50 of the search results, making it practically invisible to potential customers.
Luckily, there are several things you can do to create an effective SEO strategy. 
The first step is to determine what keywords you want to rank for, then use them in your content. You can also optimize your site by including headings and tags, which make it easier for Google’s bots to index pages.

Lacking a Blog

Many businesses still don’t have a blog, and those that have often don’t update it regularly. The truth is that a blog is essential if you want to show that your brand is an authority in your industry.
This is a vital platform where you can share your company news, views on the industry, and helpful tips for your customers. Plus, giving it regular updates will help improve your SEO.
However, blogging will only be helpful to your business if you publish unique, valuable, easy-to-read, and keyword-rich content. This means you must understand your audience and its needs before creating your first content. 

Failing to Understand Your Customers

It is not uncommon for marketers and business owners to make assumptions about what their customers want or need. But in the long run, the clients are the people who help a business fail or succeed. 
Therefore, spend some time understanding your target clients. Know their demographics, interests, and pain points. The more you learn about your clients, the better you’ll be able to serve them.

WRITTEN BY

Claire Ward