If you’re just getting started with your online marketing campaign, optimize your success by avoiding these 5 mistakes.
1. Are you trying to do everything by yourself?
If you’re like most business owners, you see the value in being self-sufficient as much as possible. Normally, this is a productive mindset. However, it won’t translate well to your digital marketing strategy.
Marketing is a profession that people spend years learning. It’s not something you can pick up over the weekend by watching YouTube videos and reading some blogs. While there are certainly several components you can learn and execute without any formal training, the majority of digital marketing strategies require expertise and experience.
Trying to be your own marketing department isn’t a good strategy. You’ll never scale your marketing efforts without professional services.
When you hire a professional marketing agency, you get access to top talent that will execute high-level strategies like link building, content marketing, and retargeting. It’s easier to scale your efforts with a team effort. Partnering with a digital marketing specialist or agency can streamline your marketing efforts, ensuring optimal results while allowing you to focus on other crucial aspects of your business.
2. Are you learning DIY marketing to save money?
Everyone loves saving money. It’s hard to believe there might be people who don’t care about saving money. However, sometimes saving money works against you. That’s the case with DIY digital marketing.
With a few exceptions, DIY digital marketing doesn’t work. You might see a little progress, but the results won’t be anything compared to what a professional agency can create. These are your limitations as a DIY marketer:
- No mastery. You can learn skills at a surface level, but without experience over time, you won’t achieve mastery. If you want top results, you need marketing mastery.
- Inability to properly measure ROI. Counting followers, fans, likes, and sales isn’t the same as measuring ROI. Measuring ROI requires several things, including adding tracking codes to your website, tracking PPC ad campaigns, creating landing pages only used for PPC ads, programming email automation tasks that track clicks and opens, and more.
- Inconsistency. It’s easy to fall off track with plans when you’ve got other priorities to manage. It’s not easy to manage your personal life, take care of your family, run your business, and meet your digital marketing timelines.
Marketing is an expense that produces ROI
When your mindset is heavily focused on “saving money,” you automatically see the world through the lens of frugality. This view makes you more likely to make digital marketing decisions based on the initial cost rather than the benefits or the ROI. A high initial cost might inspire you to try your hand at self-marketing.
Marketing spend decisions should be based on ROI even if the return isn’t monetary. For example, say a service costs $10,000, and the expected ROI is a heavy amount of targeted traffic that will remain steady over time. That $10,000 initial cost will earn you a long-term, sustainable profit.
Naturally, high-quality professional marketing services cost money and are worth every penny.
3. Are you using Google AdWords for keyword research?
A long time ago, Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo made their search data publicly available. At that time, it was possible to see how many people search for any given phrase on a daily and monthly basis. You could also view the number of webpages competing for each phrase and so much more.
Today, that information is no longer available. Still, many DIY marketers have been told to use the Google Adwords keyword planner tool for keyword research. While this can be a good substitute when it’s all you have, it’s not the best option.
Moz, the leading authority on SEO, demonstrates exactly how the Adwords tool produces flawed results when it’s used for keyword research. The keyword planner tool was created to help people find keywords for their PPC advertisements. However, it’s not clear how the results differ from real-world searches.
The optimal way to perform keyword research is to use SEM Rush. They’ve got a superior keyword research tool that allows you to discover the keywords Google Analytics won’t provide.
If using a tool sounds too complicated, your next move is to hire a digital marketing agency.
4. Are you avoiding making video content?
Video marketing is essential for success. Videos have been proven to capture the attention of website visitors who would otherwise bounce. In fact, studies show that 54% of consumers want their favorite brands to produce more video content.
The easiest way to produce video content is to start a YouTube channel and publish content your target market will find useful. It’s really that simple. Granted, you’ll still need to market your channel to gain momentum.
If you’re not producing video content for your customers, you’re losing out on sales. Data also shows that 88% of businesses that use video marketing are satisfied with their ROI.
5. Is your target market too wide?
Targeting a wide market is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. It’s better to target narrow audience segments than to try reaching the world.
The main reason narrow markets are better is because targeting a smaller segment of people allows you to craft ultra-specific marketing messages. Specific messages outperform general messages because specificity can speak to specific problems.
For example, say your company produces pre-packaged lunches. Technically, your market could be anyone who eats lunch. However, you’ll get more sales by narrowing down your market to parents who want a fast way to pack lunches for their kids.
When busy parents are your target, you can craft marketing messages that speak directly to the unique struggles of being a parent. They’ll buy your pre-packaged lunches as a solution to their problem.
Trade in DIY marketing for a professional agency
At the end of the day, DIY marketing limitations will show up in your results. Hire a professional agency to launch a strong digital marketing strategy from the start. Once you see the ROI, you’ll be glad you hired a professional.
