Fixing the Most Common SMB Digital Marketing Mistakes

Digital marketing is a mix of intuition, hard work and a willingness to respond to how customers are engaging with your brand. If those aspects are not given the right amount of attention at the right time, even the most perfect marketing campaigns can still fail to hit the mark.

Turn your attention to align with a more ROI-oriented strategy.

The last of these factors, listening to what is being said about your brand, is probably the most important. It’s especially valuable in designing effective marketing strategies around data-backed insights.

What exactly are you listening for? Metrics.

But too often, data is put on the backburner and instead executives and marketing teams get fixated on less-essential details. As digital marketing recruiters we see this come up time and again, particularly in growing organizations. They’ll spend far too much time and resources perfecting a social post or polishing up an infographic (sometimes making up to 40 different revisions).

Stop doing this.

Details are important, but perfection can have diminishing returns in the fast-paced realm of digital. (TWEET THIS)

Instead, turn your attention to align with a more ROI-oriented strategy. Here are some pointers on what to avoid and how to execute your digital marketing strategy in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

Quit Obsessing over Every Tiny Detail

Look at metrics that matter the most to determine when you need to make sure everything is just right, and when “really good” is close enough.

Some businesses, especially smaller ones, try to burden one employee with some knowledge of digital marketing with the responsibility of taking care of everything pertaining to the digital marketing space in an effort to keep marketing costs low.

Problems arise when these digital marketing managers start overanalyzing everything they do without looking at the real metrics: conversions, purchases, creation of new customers or other key-performance indicators. They get lost in the minutiae and get distracted from what matter most: driving ROI.

Whether it’s lead conversion rates, direct and organic traffic channels, average transaction amount or some other metric, digital marketing managers must know their efforts push the needle and are measured accurately.

Crafting Flawless Content is Only One Part of Content Marketing

The main aim of content should be to inform, engage, educate, and build relationships with customers. But companies that know the ins and outs of content marketing understand there is more to it than just churning out flawless content. In fact, creating the content is only half the work (and I dare say, one of the easier parts of it).

The reach, relevance, and connection to the audience are just as critical, if not more so, in determining the success of your content marketing efforts. Not perfect, but perfectly marketed content is what really adds to the bottom line of your business.

How SMBs Can Fix Their Digital Strategies

It’s one thing to identify when your approach to digital isn’t working. Finding the solution to your ineffective strategy is another. Here’s how to get started:

Cover the basics: Everyone wants all their blog posts to be perfectly-built literary masterpieces or their first video to go viral. But chances are you’ll do neither right away. Instead shoot to consistently put out quality content and social updates that are on-target for your audience and build from there.

Consider your personnel: Adjust your strategy around the talent you have available. Digital marketing recruiters see people put in positions they’re not qualified for all the time. Your college intern might love to Tweet and Pin, but that doesn’t automatically qualify them as social media managers. Social networks are a huge influence in purchase decisions across many industries. You need people that understand not just how to use the channels, but how to adjust your messaging on each and how to connect with customers through social efforts. This goes for content creation and other digital efforts as well.

Measure: If you aren’t actually measuring marketing results (of all kinds) against some business goals then you are wasting your time and energy. Marketing has two overarching purposes: to create customers, and to keep them. If your goal is lead generation then measure that. If your goal is customer satisfaction, then measure that as well. Whatever you do, don’t just aimlessly market and hope for success. After all, hope is not a strategy.

Evolve: Marketing is more dynamic than ever. Technology, social and digital spaces are changing on a daily basis. What you are doing today may need to change sooner than you think. Remember, great marketers are always focused on the task in front of them. But they’re also keeping an eye out for what’s coming next around the corner. 

Article source: entrepreneur.com

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