Your digital marketing strategy plays a major role in the success of your marketing campaign. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to make mistakes when devising your strategy, and while you can always correct those errors later, that’s time, effort, and money you won’t be able to get back. The good news is that, by identifying some of the most common digital marketing mistakes, you can know what to avoid ahead of time. That being said, here are some of the most frequent mistakes marketers are making in 2023.
Only Using One Social Media Platform
It’s always important to make sure that you’re going where your audience is. However, as we’ve seen with the recent social media migrations from Twitter to the new social media site Threads, your audience is going to be on multiple social media platforms. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket and instead spread out your social media marketing efforts to multiple platforms where you’ll receive the most engagement.
Overlooking the Competition
While some digital marketers will look at the competition to see what they need to compete against, you could be using your competition to see what you can do better. Run a competitor audit of both direct and indirect competitors with your brand. What are your competitors doing that leaves their audience hungry for more? What can you do to fill in those marketing gaps? For example, if one of your key competitors has a good PPC campaign but their landing page isn’t great, you can create a landing page that’s even better for your own PPC campaign to drive traffic to your website.
Targeting Everyone
While it may be tempting to run a digital marketing campaign that’s geared toward anyone willing to purchase your product or services, casting a wide net may not be as effective as you think. Opt to make a fictional user persona based on the data you have about your target audience to get an idea of who your target audience actually is. Don’t make assumptions based on your own biases that could potentially scew your data and hurt your marketing efforts; make sure your user persona is based on real data. Once you have your persona, you can make your marketing decisions based on that profile.
For example, if the person in your user persona is aged 40+, you may think Facebook would be the best place for you to host your ads. However, according to Pew Research Center, up to 91% of adults aged 30-49 are on YouTube. By focusing your efforts there with YouTube ads, you may be more likely to get engagement from your target audience while spending less ad money.
Using SEO Poorly
Every business nowadays uses SEO as a way to drive web traffic. While this is a great way to get your target audience to your website, it’s important to make sure that you’re also catering to your users. A user who visits your website and sees multiple “near me” keywords or keyword-stuffed content is more likely to leave your site than stay on it. Make sure that your content is keyword-optimized in a way that feels natural and high-quality. This will help establish a trusting relationship with your target audience, and they’ll see you as an expert in your industry.
Digital marketing is one of the most popular and important marketing techniques in 2023. By avoiding the most common mistakes above, you can reduce your risk of your own campaign overspending and underperforming.