The 7 Deadly Sins of Digital Marketing
A “deadly” sin could be defined as being so far off the mark that our behavior becomes damaging to the point of being destructive. When we apply the term “deadly sins” to the topic of marketing, it means we are “missing the mark” and even partaking in some practices and behaviors that turn out to be destructive to our objectives and goals. Could you be committing any of the 7 deadly sins of online marketing?
The following list is the seven deadly sins that are destructive to your online marketing efforts. Don’t be guilty of committing them.
Research by Google shows that 49% of people use the internet to search for products or services. Since most of the searches start online, you’ll want to have an online presence for your business; otherwise, you won’t be able to keep up with the changing times.
In other words, digital marketing is crucial to the success of your business.
However, it has to be done right, as every marketing digital agency knows. Using the wrong marketing approaches can harm your business and marketing efforts.
Whether you’re working with a top digital marketing agency, like us, or are doing it in-house, there are 7 deadly sins you need to avoid at all costs. You may not be aware of some of these sins, while others just require a shift in your mindset to make things right. Either way, these are the critical things to avoid when marketing your business online from the best digital marketing agency.
Deadly Sin #1: Letting Your Cousin Design Your Website
Your website design is vital to the success of your business in many ways.
First, it affects the ranking of your website on SERPs. Search engines, like Google, rely on various metrics to rank a website in search results. Ultimately, your web design affects SEO and your rankings on search engine result pages.
Secondly, a poorly designed website will put visitors off. No one wants to waste time on a slow website that’s also difficult to navigate. In fact, studies have shown that load times more than 3 seconds increase bounce rate. Even a 2 seconds delay can reduce conversions by 4.2%.
If you’re serious about digital marketing, you’ll want to look for a professional website builder experienced in technical SEO. So, unless your cousin is a web designer proficient in creating SEO-optimized websites, don’t give them the job.
Deadly Sin #2: Marketing Without a Strategy
The next sin that will hurt your marketing efforts is to jump into marketing without a well-laid plan. Jumping online without a plan means that you have:
- No goals – If you don’t know whether you’re trying to sell a product, build relationships, gain an audience, or simply ask a question, your efforts will fail. You won’t even know whether you succeeded because you have nothing to compare the results against.
- No target audience – If you try to reach everyone, you may end up reaching no one. Having an audience in mind is vital as it helps you address your target group in the language they understand and with the content they love.
- No strategy – If you have no defined tactics to help you achieve your goals (assuming you have them), you’re working on the often futile trial and error basis.
It’s deadly not to have a strategy because you’ll spend your hard-earned money and time on things that yield no results. You’ll be spinning your wheels in the mud.
Deadly Sin #3: Creating Crappy Content
You probably have heard the saying that “content is king.”
What you may not know is that content is only king if it’s written articulately to meet the needs of its audience. In other words, your content needs to be targeted and relevant to create value.
Your goal as a content creator is not to post five ads a day on different platforms. Your job is to engage with customers. And when you create content that resonates with your audience, Google will also rank it higher in SERPs.
The thing is, quality and relevant content attract likes, shares, and comments. All these are signs of good user engagement, which signals to Google that your content is relevant and authoritative, hence ranking it higher on SERPs.
Crappy content, on the other hand, will have low engagement and encourage users to hit the back button. And if the content was copied (plagiarized), it’s not only your SEO that will suffer; you could end up facing penalties for copyright infringement.
Deadly Sin #4: Neglecting Social Media
With over 4.2 billion active users on social media, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to market your business on these platforms, as every top digital marketing agency would note.
Social media is a must-have tool in your digital marketing arsenal. It’s a very powerful medium for reaching a wider audience quickly. However, if you engage in any of the practices listed below, you could be in danger of committing deadly sins that will return a negative ROI.
- Always selling – If your followers perceive you have no content and are always spamming their timelines with promotional material, they’ll likely unfollow you
- Not linking back to your site – Social media marketing aims to drive traffic to your site and possibly make a sale. So, if you’re not linking back to your site, you’re defeating the purpose of social media marketing
- Poor photography - If you use photos that look like they were taken by an amateur, your followers may not take you seriously
- Not posting consistently – Posting consistently will help you build a loyal base of followers, so aim to do it regularly
Deadly Sin #5: Website Not Optimized for Mobile
In an age where more people visit the internet on mobile phones than desktops, you must ensure your website is optimized for mobile viewing.
Google takes mobile responsiveness very seriously. Early in 2019, the search engine giant rolled out the mobile-first indexing update. This means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of a site’s content for indexing and ranking.
So, if your site is not optimized for mobile, you’ll miss out on all the traffic that would potentially come to your site if it were optimized.
Deadly Sin #6: Not Using Data for Decisions
Data is the fuel that drives business decisions.
It also helps you determine whether your marketing campaigns are headed in the right direction. Without looking at the data, you won’t know what’s working and what’s not working. You’ll end up making wrong assumptions, which could cost you big on your marketing budget.
Don’t miss the opportunity to make the right decisions. Invest in data analytical tools that will give you visibility into your marketing campaigns.
Deadly Sin #7: Missing or Using Weak Call to Action (CTA)
The CTA is an important element on a webpage, acting as a signpost that tells the user to take some specified action. Without a clear CTA, users might not know what to do next and will likely leave the site without taking any action.
People don’t like being left to guess what to do next if they decide to do business with you. Don’t be shy; tell them directly to “click the button and enjoy 20% off on the product/service.”
Endnote
That’s it! The 7 deadline sins of digital marketing.
If any of these sins of digital marketing sounds like something you’d need help with, get in touch with us today, and we’ll be happy to help. As the best digital marketing agency, BusySeed is dedicated to helping businesses thrive in the ever-competitive online environment.
