Reaching an online audience is hard. And while marketers may use a number of innovative strategies to seek out that consumer base, it's all too easy to sabotage yourself through simple marketing mistakes.
These mistakes can run the gamut from small oversights to huge blunders, but they all have one thing in common: They can torpedo your marketing campaigns, slashing your ROI and hurting your ability to find relevant consumers who are interested in what your company has to offer.
The list of potential mistakes can run into the dozens, if not the hundreds. But here are three simple mistakes you can correct right away.
Stopping Brand-Awareness Marketing Efforts
In the digital age, some brands make the false conclusion that awareness marketing isn't as valuable as it once was. With highly targeted campaigns identifying the most relevant online prospects, does building general awareness still warrant marketers' attention?
The answer is a resounding yes. As Steve Harding points out on LinkedIn, brand-awareness marketing can help lower customer acquisition costs through cheap — or even cost-free — online reach. It can also increase customer loyalty over time. And brand-awareness marketing can lend itself to other highly effective digital marketing strategies, such as retargeting, that use behavioral markers to target consumers who have engaged with the brand and are more likely to make conversions.
Using Different Abbreviations for Your Address
If you maintain a brick-and-mortar presence, your business address is critical to online success, especially when marketing across mobile. The address will appear on Google Business listings, your Facebook and other social media pages, and business directories across the Internet. For SEO purposes, as well as to provide clarity for customers, businesses need to make sure they use the same abbreviations for their local address wherever they're listed.
While you should update this information anywhere it's listed, you'll also want to periodically check these listings to make sure the information is accurate and consistent. Just as with the U.S. Postal Service, a more uniform and accurate address will help your customers find you with ease.
Asking for Too Much Information on Your Website's Contact or Lead-Gen Form
You can't blame marketers for wanting to gather as much consumer data as possible. But there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. A wrong way is by loading up a lead-generation form with excessive questions and fields.
When you're trying to generate a lead that might turn into a conversion — and potentially a loyal customer down the road — you don't want to create obstacles if the visitor wants to get in touch with you. Instead, you want to make that process simple and build toward a future opportunity where you can dive deeper and get more information. With that in mind, build contact and lead-generation forms on your website that ask for as little information as possible. Stick to information that is absolutely necessary to make that first contact.
When building a complex digital marketing strategy, you don't want silly marketing mistakes to undercut your hard work. Take time to double-check your work and sniff out simple mistakes before they end up stinging you down the road.
