They may be unintentional, or the result of bad advice. Whatever the cause, business owners with good intentions trying to harness these new web trends and technologies repeatedly make the same online marketing mistakes—and don’t achieve online marketing results because of it. Are you making the most common online marketing mistakes? You don’t have to walk around with a label on your back, or shout it to the world, but you should be aware of the most common online marketing mistakes:
- Thinking that a functional and beautiful website is enough. “There,” you think, “I’ve invested in this website. Customers come and find me!” Unfortunately that’s not how it works. Customers have a lot of online options, and studies have shown that they make more than 60% of their purchasing decision online. Another stat: more than 90% begin their internet search with a search engine. So how do you get your new website found? Contact a reputable company that can achieve results with optimization, updated content and social media marketing. These three concepts get your website found by local customers—and keep you there.
- Putting the same posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest & Instagram. Social media sites are not “one size fits all.” Each site has its own audience and set of rules. Your manual or automated cross post is going to be obviously out of place and not achieve the results you set out to achieve. If you want a presence on all social media sites, outsource your social media marketing to the experts.
- Not making regular social media posts. Neglecting your social media pages, or posting sporadic bursts of posts and tweets, is an unintentional way to get lost among the thousands of social media pages who update regularly.
- Not backing up your marketing with excellent customer service—including online customer service. If you are online, if you have a Facebook page or Twitter profile, customers expect you to respond within hours, if not minutes. Whether it’s an email through your website, or a post from one of your customers, use these steps to build a system to respond, both professionally and promptly.
- Selling too much. We can hear you, “but that’s why I’m online! That’s why I invest my time and money.” Today’s customers don’t want to be barraged by advertisements and sales pitches. You’ll find that your engagement numbers—those responding, liking, favoriting and asking questions—quickly decrease. Don’t get us wrong: it’s okay to offer discounts (in fact customers follow your company for that reason), but your job is to be helpful and offer your customers assistance so they can find what they need. If you don’t know how, outsource your online marketing efforts to a company that can.
Knowing and not knowing the rules and latest trends in social media can mean the difference between social media success and failure. So why would you trust just anyone to manage your social media pages? Don’t trust your efforts to any intern or the youngest employee in your company. Trust your company’s image, and social media success, to social media experts who can maintain a stellar social media presence—and achieve the goals you set out to achieve when you started your Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram profile.
