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In absolutely no uncertain terms: digital marketing DOES work. It's just that the difference between "getting it done" and "getting it done properly" is far greater than a lot of people realize.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of mistakes that can be made when creating a campaign to serve your brand. Now is the perfect time for a digital marketing refresh. Here are our top four things that you should be looking out for when it comes to your digital marketing strategy for the months ahead.
1. DON'T: Forget to Define a Target Audience
In 2023, there should be absolutely no reason to still be guessing who your target audience actually is.
Just because you may know a little bit about your customers does NOT mean that you are comprehending them. At a bare minimum, you will need to create target personas to get an accurate sense of who these people really are, what they like and dislike, and basic demographic information.
Not only that, but make sure you're staying updated on these personas every six to 12 months, no matter what. Things change in the business community, the economy, and the lives of your consumers. Never assume that who is interested in your business and why they are interested won't change. It can and does.
2. DON'T: Neglect Existing Customers
Any seasoned business professional can tell you that customer retention is far, far less expensive than acquisition. To take advantage of that, all you have to do is simply NOT ignore this basic truth.
Maintaining a customer relationship that you have already established will ALWAYS be the right choice, even when you think it might be "more worth it" to go out and find new customers.
To keep your current customers happy, the things that you can try include but are not limited to steps like:
- Loyalty programs.
- Adding new membership options to help them get more out of their existing relationship.
- Customized birthday deals and offers.
- More personalized product recommendations based on past purchases and searches.
3. DON'T: Fail to Set Goals
It's always great to have goals for your site - you just need to make sure they're actually reasonable given the current circumstances.
No, your site isn't going to be 100% perfect overnight. But that's okay. It takes some time to build online awareness, particularly regarding search engine optimization (SEO).
No matter what, make sure you are clear about what your website is supposed to be doing for you. Then, build that site around those goals.
For example, one website may integrate flawlessly with online purchasing platforms like Shopify. Based on that, the main goal may be to drive sales - and your website should make it easy for customers to find what they want and purchase.
Someone else may have an entirely different goal, and that's okay - so long as their website is built from the ground up with those unique objectives in mind.
4. DO: Have the Right Content Strategy in Place
Finally, understand that having the right content strategy in place at the heart of your efforts is of paramount importance in terms of improving your rankings on search engines. Failing to create a content marketing strategy won't just make this difficult - in a lot of cases, it will make it impossible.
Your target audience will usually ignore poor articles loaded with keywords, as well as they should. Therefore, having the correct digital marketing strategy for your content implies knowing why you're publishing those specific pieces in the first place.
You know what value they provide and who they're providing it to. You need to know what the expected outcome is once you hit the "Publish" button. You need the answers to these questions to drive your actions moving forward - and provided that you take the time to get them, you'll come out all the better for them, with absolutely no exceptions.
Originally published 6/13/20 - Updated 2/28/23
