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Digital Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid in 2020

These 3 powerful insights will help your business remain competitive in a saturated market

JeRoe Bott is a freelance writer who works mostly from home. Her days are filled with researching latest industry trends and chatting with professionals with similar interests. When she’s not on the phone or typing away on her laptop, you’ll likely find her tending to her garden.

These days, digital marketing is a key component in any good organizational strategy. In fact, it’s a necessity if you want to remain competitive. The Houston Chronicle estimates that 627,000 new businesses open each year, and it goes without saying that a significant portion of them operate online.

Now, the vast majority of these businesses are likely to have no relation whatsoever to your own venture. But the sheer numbers nevertheless make it vital for your business to create and execute a successful digital marketing plan to stand out — both against competitors and among the crowd in general. This will ultimately help to boost your site’s visibility and generate business.

However, since digital marketing is a vast and ever-changing field, it’s easy to jump in and make mistakes that can negatively affect your marketing efforts. But don’t fret. To help you and your company venture successfully into the world of modern digital marketing, we’ve written up three common mistakes a lot of people make — and how to avoid them.

Creating a website that isn’t engaging

A lot of people are under the impression that “digital marketing” only refers to external efforts: email campaigns, social media use, guest posts on other websites, and so on. However, you shouldn’t make that mistake if you truly want to make marketing work for you. You also have to keep in mind that your own website plays a vital role in attracting and retaining visitors, and converting them into customers.

What this means essentially is that you need to create a website that is engaging in exactly the way you want it to be. It should appeal at first glance; it should be easy to navigate; and it should gently direct visitors toward desired actions (whether that means subscribing, signing up for updates, making purchases, sharing on social media, etc.).

This is a lot for most online business owners to manage independently however, which is why we’d also recommend seeking some professional design help. As Matt Olpinski wrote in his post “5 Tips for Qualifying the Right Design Company”, finding a great design company can be “critical to the success of your business.”

You can find such a company by carefully assessing designers’ web presence, testimonials, and styles of communication — and then, hopefully, find the right partner to design a site just as engaging as you need it to be.

Lacking a real social media strategy

Social media is an integral tool in digital marketing, as it can empower you to share your business and cultivate trust in loyalty in whatever your company provides. But sadly, because social media is often an afterthought, a lot of businesses end up managing their accounts without any real strategy. This may seem adequate in the moment, but ultimately it’s a big mistake. Only consistent, thoughtful social media activity will reap real benefits.

Here also, it’s best to let a professional take the reins when possible. If you have an intern or someone similar to handle this work, then great! But otherwise, investing in a professional is worth it, as Maryville University suggests that digital marketing graduates possess vital skills in analytics, SEO, and content management — all of which can help your business reach a greater audience online.

That said, it also pays to know the basics yourself, so that you can ensure that with or without a marketing professional, you can steadily work on improving your social media strategy. We understand that putting this kind of effort together is difficult, but to not do so at all is a surefire way to miss out on opportunities and fall behind in today’s digital world.

Not tapping into the power of video

Video can have a huge impact for any online company, because as a medium, it offers a chance to showcase the problems you’re trying to address and trigger a desire among consumers to seek whatever solutions you’re offering. Additionally, Forbes reports that videos drive more engagement compared to static content, and that they significantly increase dwell time on websites.

This means that video needs to be an integral part of any marketing plan for a modern online business, and that avoiding the medium altogether (as all too many sites do) is a mistake.

Rest assured, digital marketing can at times be tricky, slow, and a little bit confusing. It’s not something that comes naturally to very many people. Nevertheless, it’s a crucial component of business in 2020. And ultimately, you can boil it down to something simple: The key to a successful digital strategy is understanding your story and the people you want to tell it to.

Focus on that core concept, figure out how to use it to present value to your target audience, and avoid the mistakes we just outlined, and you’ll be well on your way to a more productive digital outreach strategy.