In 2018, businesses and marketers need to take advantage of the latest digital marketing trends to remain competitive. However, with an increasing number of businesses competing online, and with new marketing tools to contend with, it's easy to make mistakes that can damage your online image.
Many businesses still make the mistake of running their content marketing efforts in a vacuum. Their blog and social media content might drive traffic, but it doesn't support sales. This can easily be fixed with clear calls-to-action and links that direct readers toward your products or services. A simple "Buy Now" or "Learn More" button can be enough to generate more leads.
Each digital marketing campaign should be monitored and fine-tuned to boost its effectiveness. To do this, you need to track the correct metrics. Many companies still fail to properly analyze why some campaigns are working and why others are failing.
While social media shares and page visits are great, they don't tell the whole story. Focus on user engagement and conversions to determine the real impact of each campaign. If something isn't working, tweak your approach until it resonates with your audience.
Another thing that many businesses overlook is the real impact of their paid ads. With most social media platforms, you can track the performance of each ad campaign to get a clearer view of the ROI.
For example, Facebook Pixel is a powerful analytics tool that will track your advertising from initial impressions to user behavior on your website. Use this data to make sure you're targeting the right people and optimizing conversions.
Search engine algorithms are more effective than ever before at recognizing search intent and delivering better quality results. High-quality content and links are still crucial, but building your authority is more important than ever before.
This means publishing longer-form, topic-specific content in a variety of content formats. According to a study by SEMRush, the average Google first page result featured content containing 1,890 words (1).
Try to organize your blog into "topic clusters" that feature blog posts based on a central theme, then make sure you are internally linking these keyword-rich pages together.
According to Search Engine Watch, email outperforms both search and social media combined when it comes to conversions (2). If you're still not utilizing email in your content marketing strategy, you're missing out on many potential leads and sales. It's time to develop a solid email marketing plan.
It can take time for consumers to find and pay attention to your content. Therefore, it's important to use different channels to make sure your messages are seen by prospects, preferably more than once. It also means you shouldn't expect immediate results.
Reshare your content on the same channel more than once, and distribute your content across platforms where you will reach your target audience. Many businesses spend too much time on content creation and not enough time on content promotion.
You only have a matter of seconds to convince consumers to stay on your website or continue reading your content. If your webpage loads slowly or isn't optimized for mobile, you'll miss out on many conversion opportunities.
Dedicate time and resources to developing a user-friendly and mobile-friendly design. You'll be rewarded by Google with higher search engine rankings and engage more online users.
Data analysis, consumer surveys, and patterns of consumer behavior can all guide your online marketing strategies. Make sure you understand what your target customers really want from your content. When you appear to understand their current pain points and future needs, you're much more likely to be seen as the solution to their problems.
Seek out social media groups and forums to study your target audience, and create marketing strategies that are in line with how your customers think.
It's great to get excited about integrated digital marketing campaigns that include social media, web content, email marketing, and SEO strategies, but you still need to know your team can handle the production and analysis effectively. Without a proper strategy in place, you could lose track of your ultimate goals.
If you lack the time or resources, start small, focusing on the tactics that you can afford to implement and that your team can manage effectively. You can then upscale your efforts to suit your time and budget.
The world of online marketing is providing companies with new opportunities to reach out to a wider audience and also develop more targeted marketing strategies. If you avoid these digital marketing mistakes in 2018 and beyond, you can stay ahead of the competition, make more of an impact on your audience, and not squander your marketing budget.
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