Digital marketing mistakes to avoid in 2022

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Although traditional marketing has been helping bricks-and-mortar businesses reach audiences and sell products, digital marketing is relatively new. Technology has been making everything faster, providing easier communication and expanding connections between people. Even the most luxurious brands with a well-known profile use digital marketing to reach their customers online as well as offline. Digital marketing is the future and we will guide you through some of the mistakes that can cost you customers and sales, but most importantly, money.

To start, digital marketing should always revolve around your business goals, industry, competitors, budget, and messaging tools. They all go in the same direction and you can think of it as an ecosystem, meaning that if your marketing efforts are focused on the budget alone then most probably that budget is going to burn out and the results you were hoping for will not be fulfilled.

1. Not investing enough in knowing your Persona

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Let’s make it clear that if you want to grow your business then keep in mind that your buyer persona isn’t just one category of customers, there are different segments of customers with different interests and different backgrounds that suit different products or services you offer. Therefore, their purchasing decisions, preferred price range, and choice of platforms to use will not be the same. You as a business need to take all that into account when you’re marketing to each category. Instead of marketing for a product or service, it is more valuable to showcase the benefit of using them according to the problem that the persona in question is having.

For example, if your business is specialized in kitchenware products, you can show in your ad how quick home-cooked meals can be made using a certain set of the cookware you offer to a housewife and then show in another ad a juice maker to an athlete in a hurry. In both ads, you are targeting a different persona with different needs and the end result would be gaining a larger customer base, therefore more sales.

The effort we put into knowing people and understanding them is not only crucial to our day-to-day interactions but also from a business point of view, it is an investment to convince customers why our products or services are worthy to try.

2. Not having a solid Content Strategy

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Content strategy is the central key of your overall marketing strategy, and it’s all about creating content that is valuable to your target audience. It all comes down to how you showcase, promote, distribute, and provide content through online channels.

A content strategy is heavily influenced by customer expectations; it is critical to keep them in mind at all times! The way we consume and have instant access to information today changed the narratives of marketing. Content is what keeps people revisiting websites, repurchasing from e-commerce businesses, and making them come back for more, which ultimately leads to increased conversion rates and revenues. A great product with poor content to market the product results in low customer retention.

Having a solid content strategy revolves around your objectives and goals. Is it to acquire new customers? To increase brand awareness? To inform about the launch of new products? Or is it to simply entertain? In each case, the content is completely different as the persona in question isn’t the same.

Surely there have been multiple times where you would pass by an advertisement online and never look twice, this is when the content strategy of this ad has failed either by not targeting the right persona or by not incorporating content that is relevant, attractive and optimized. In this case, the end result would be burning money.

3. Not having a proper Digital Strategy

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Customer-centric digital initiatives with high ambitions result in a growing sales rate. Starbucks saw an increase in its mobile app sales by integrating loyalty programs with its existing customers. A customer journey is a cycle, it does not end if you are looking to stay relevant and for your business to expand or stay profitable. A proper digital strategy includes measures to boost your social media footprint, improve your organic search results, and retain customers. Analyzing customer pain points is the first step before trying to implement anything new. Know the problem and then start suggesting how your products can offer solutions accordingly.

Depending on which phase your customer is in their customer journey, your digital strategy should be tailored to it. This means that your customer’s interactions and values change continuously through time. Strategically sending special offers, with an optimized website experience and transparent reviews, for a lead customer considering your product, will most likely accelerate their purchasing decision and take them to the decision phase, of course, if the persona in question is well researched. However, sending product demos to a customer in their after purchase phase doesn’t make sense and can result in frustration to the customer who isn’t gaining anything new from your business. Loyalty programs in this case can be better suited to keep the engagement in the long term.

Digital strategy is an ongoing process, meaning that after putting into action your structured plan, ordered data that you gain can be analyzed to understand what works best for your business, predict problems and react in a much faster way which ultimately leads to increased margins while saving time and money on the longterm.

4. Ignoring the competition

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One of the best ways to learn about your customers and stay on top of their problems, wants, needs, and desires, is to conduct competitor research. Ignoring your competitors is like ignoring your customers. A simple question like What products and alternatives are customers using to solve their problems today? can be useful to understand what your potential customers are looking for, struggling with, or would like to have. A lot of data and information can be collected in your business’s favor through thorough continuous research on your competitors, not just a quick Capterra look.

Where do they see the opportunity? What competitor features do customers care about? Are competitors meeting customer expectations? All of these questions must be asked to ensure a better understanding of the market and to start focusing on ways to make your business stand out. Surveys, reading reviews, and product testing are some of the elements that can help you evaluate what’s on the market and learn about your customers.

Take a look at our case studies to find out more about how Amplify helped businesses grow with digital marketing efforts.