Your strategy is efficient if your actions are well thought-through and you are careful enough not to make the slightest mistake. So what to avoid in order not to trigger a catastrophe?
1. Don’t be too obsessed about chasing novelties
Nowadays we constantly hear that you have to be up to date, otherwise you will be left behind. But this is not necessarily true in the marketing world. Isn’t it ironic that among the most frequent marketing errors you can name obsession about being up to date? And why is that? In the market, there are many agencies which implement efficient solutions but these are often neglected. Online marketing isn’t developing that fast and dynamically as you could think. For many years we’ve mean using smartphones to talk and we’ve been amazed by their computing power; but what about their marketing power? Since we kept ignoring it, the implemented solutions could be neglected; and if nobody recognizes them, implementation doesn’t make much sense. Marketing strategy is a long-term one and takes into account tools and technologies available at a given point of time. And this is what you should focus on.
2. Think about the audience
Every marketing guide mentions that as one of the common mistakes, and rightly so! The language used in online marketing should be matched with both the audience and the medium. Before you go on to publish some content, think about the potential recipient. If it is a group of teenagers, use the language that is relaxed and less formal. If you target businessmen, your message should be clear and more official. Remember to keep your language balanced and even more so if you address business customers. It is not about writing like a clerk! Being light and writing with a little pinch of salt doesn’t mean you can’t be chic.
3. Do you measure the right things? Check it!
Marketing strategy depends on data. If the number of likes under a Facebook post is the only thing you take into account, you might consider yourself lost. Marketers have access to a whole range of different data which allow them to plan a strategy and avoid marketing errors. If you want to avoid them, consider at least the number of users who visit your website, the number of views, percentage of new users and the source of entries. Don’t forget to check how much time customers spend on your website, conversion and shares. Data is one thing, but if they are to be translated into results, detailed analysis and drawing conclusions are needed.
4. Make your communication persuasive, but not intrusive
Adverts are nothing new in the electronic media world, are they? Nowadays we get bombarded by them in every possible sense. And technology makes it possible for users to get rid of ads with the use of some blocking software. For this reason, a good marketer should know how to develop a marketing strategy so that not to make it too intrusive for the user. It is incredibly easy for the software to filter ads and thus reject them, hence what you do should be very subtle, hardly noticeable by the user who shouldn’t be even aware about online marketing.
5. Devote more time for distribution than for the content
Many marketers follow the right rule offered in many marketing guides which says that 20% of time should be devoted for creating content, and the rest for distribution. It is still neglected and many think the content plays a more vital role than anything else. This is reflected in a popular saying ‘content is the king.’ And, in fact, online marketing is not only about content, but, above all, its distribution. Content should be properly presented to the user. and to do so, you need to know how to extract specific information out of it. Remember about the contact with the customer and the media. Apart from that, one of the most common mistakes is that you may want to publish content in the media too frequently. If you bomb someone with information about your company, you may lose, as the user will just get fed up with you.
