You would think that brands have the fundamentals of digital marketing down to a science, but our consulting group keeps seeing the same mistakes over and over. Here is a list of some of the mistakes we see.
1ne: Overestimating/Underestimating the value of a branded website – Do consumers really have the time to go to frozen pizza brand website? Probably not. While some brands still need a branded website they overestimate the value in the conversion process. On the other side a lot of brands that warrant a serious decision by consumers don’t optimize their sites enough and allow visitors to go to competitors sites. Marketers need to understand the value of their branded website in the conversion process.
2wo: Believeing in social media marketing – Of all the fantasies that have infected the advertising and marketing industries, perhaps none is sillier and more delusional than the social media fantasy. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] Social media has turned out to be a much larger danger to brands than opportunity.[/inlinetweet] Anyone who has witnessed the past few weeks of non-stop YouTube, Pepsi, and United Airlines social media massacres and still believes that consumers are using social media to wax lyrical over brands desperately needs a reality transplant. You still need a social media presence to listen to your audience and give them a feedback channel, but the idea of social media marketing is as dead as intelligence in the White House.
3hree: Content marketing is essential for our website – Uh, no. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] What makes you think that consumers have time to read all the content that’s out there? [/inlinetweet] P&G tried content marketing for Tide and it did zero for engagement with the brand.
4our: Not conducting usability testing – If you have to ask why you’re in deep shit. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] Websites are about your users not you.[/inlinetweet]
5ive: Providing a lousy experience with mobile devices – I don’t know how many times I have left a website on my smartphone or iPad because it’s not fully optimized for mobile. That is just plain inexcusable.
6ix: Letting the budget drive the strategy – The strategy drives the budget and should be integrated with all your marketing efforts, but even today we have clients ask us to develop digital marketing for a specific dollar amount without first identifying the objectives.
7even: Paying too much for search and not correctly analyzing the results – What is the cost per page view? What is bounce rate per keyword? These are all things that need to be measured, but all too often are not.
8ight: Hiring someone with great tech skills, but no marketing skills to be in charge of your emarketing– To develop a great online marketing program you need someone who understand marketing and your audience.
9ine: Thinking about digital marketing as “an add on” – Digital marketing should be integrated with your marketing plan from the moment you develop it. It’s not just someone sitting with a keyboard entering code.
10en: Believing all the hype perpetrated by so called digital experts so they can sell more books and get paid to attend speaker conferences – These are the same people who told us that we absolutely need to be on social media and that social media marketing would redefine online marketing.
