Digital marketing isn’t new – we get it.

But for any of us who have been doing it for a long time, it’s always good to check in and see if we’re truly getting an acceptable return on our digital marketing investments. Just how effective really is our digital marketing strategy?

So let’s look at five common digital marketing mistakes – and how we can avoid them.

Mistake #1: Your in-house content efforts aren’t competitive

No matter how well structured your digital marketing strategy is, it will not succeed if you do not have the talent and time available to create and deliver impactful content.

If you’re not producing quality content regularly, existing and potential customers will gravitate towards competitors who are helping them solve a problem.

When to outsource content creation and why

Companies typically outsource content creation when they cannot produce content at the quality, volume, or scale necessary to achieve success.

The benefits of outsourcing include:

• Consistent, informative and customer-centric content.
• Objectivity: in-house writers are conditioned to think like your business rather than your audience. Check out this article on Why hiring in-house writers doesn’t work.
• Protecting your time so that you can focus on other elements of your digital strategy, such as distribution and outreach.

To begin with, try outsourcing just one article every two weeks to control costs and test user engagement.

Mistake #2: Your social media posts aren’t targeted

Social media is more than just a tool for conversation and content; it is a channel that has been proven to work for customer acquisition.

Paid-for, targeted social media campaigns can help amplify organic content and put your message in front of a wider audience.

How to approach paid advertising

Facebook advertising is one of the best and least expensive ways to start your journey. The platform boasts a huge range of built-in targeting mechanisms which can help you understand, identify and segment your audience based on real-life data.

Try creating ‘lookalike audiences’ to expand your reach. You establish your custom audience using data, then identify common qualities of those people – and use that to find others who ‘look’ like them.

Of course, paid advertising is a process of trial and error while you learn more about the behaviours and interests of your audience. So give yourself the necessary time to learn and be experimental.

Mistake #3: Your SEO efforts aren’t sufficiently content-focused

Content and SEO are interdependent – you cannot truly succeed with one unless you’re considering the other.

For example, why bother conducting keyword research unless you’re going to use those keywords to build a library of relevant content that helps answer your audience’s questions?

How to create optimised content

Firstly, don’t produce content purely to accommodate a keyword.

Take time to consider and plan out one cornerstone piece of content that relates to a keyword or group of related keywords and make that content shine. Continuously adapt and update this single, powerful piece. Quality is key.

Promote the piece on your homepage or your website sidebar, and with email and social outreach.

At a later stage, consider related content topics focused on long-tail keyword phrases that can be linked to and from your cornerstone content. 

Mistake #4: You’re forgetting the power of email

Email marketing is still the most powerful way to connect with people, digitally.

The 2016 Consumer Adoption & Digital Usage study by Adestra showed that 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses via email.

And according to the DMA’s 2017 Consumer Email Tracker Report, 99% of consumers check their email every day, an average of 20 times per day.

So don’t allow the surge of social media to distract you from the fact that email is still one of the most effective channels.

How to build a powerful email list

A robust database is the first step to email marketing success. Although it takes time to build a strong email list, the rewards are exponential.

Never purchase email lists. The quality of contacts is poor, the contacts know nothing about you, and you could violate GDPR and harm your reputation as a trusted sender.

Build your list organically by creating gated assets such as guides, eBooks, webinars, templates and tools. Promote these assets on blogs and social media.

Mistake #5: You’re trying to do too much

As with most things in life, it’s impossible to do everything.

While it’s important to stay abreast of what other businesses and entrepreneurs are doing, it’s vital to remember that what works for them may not be right for you.

Focus your digital attention

Spend time developing your digital marketing strategy and adapting where necessary to suit market conditions, digital trends and audience insights.

Challenge yourself to try different digital marketing approaches but limit yourself to experimenting with just one each quarter. As with every successful experiment, you need a control, or baseline, in order to determine success or failure of a new venture.

Digital marketing is an exciting space to exist in, but keep your business head on and make educated time/cost decisions when exploring the endless opportunities it has to offer.