Top 7 Reasons Your Digital Marketing is Failing
Digital marketing is tough and it’s easier to fail than it is to succeed! If you got into business to sell your product and you are now consumed by digital marketing and “how to”, welcome to the digital marketing jungle! These are the top 7 reasons you are failing in digital marketing.
We’d never leave you hanging, so here are some digital marketing tips to start to turn your digital marketing around from failure to success.
Content Creation & Allocation
Companies get into business with a great product or idea, sell it and then wonder how they can grow their business. The first thing I look at is their content. By that, I mean, how are you talking to your customer? Are you creating posts on social media? Are you handing out flyers? Are you writing blog articles? What is your company doing to talk to your customers? In today’s marketing economy the number one asset you can have is digital content. Blog articles are number one in my book for just about every company I encounter. From a blog post you can create social media posts and filter the content into email newsletters, videos, etc. So, the number one issue I see most every business having is that they do not create content, nor do they allocate time and resources into creating them.
Marketing Budget Allocation
Many small businesses have a great product and do really well. By the time they contact us or another marketing agency, they have zero marketing budget or haven’t really thought about it. They really have no idea what a marketing budget is supposed to look like. On average, companies spend anywhere from 10-13% of their net profits on marketing. If you want to bring your company to the next level, start with building a marketing budget. Then you can approach a marketing agency with your needs. Imagine if you were to go shopping for a house and you get a realtor and tell them that you actually have no monthly budget, but you want to purchase a home.
Social & Digital is Primary
If you haven’t noticed already, social media marketing and digital marketing is here to stay. You need to make it your primary means of advertising. On which social media platforms are your customers? Wherever they are, your company needs to be! I do get it, social media marketing can be tough! Just ask the average business. On average, most companies only have 500 Facebook followers! That’s it! There is still a place for direct marketing, but no matter what, you need to find your customers on the internet. When was the last time that you did not check your phone for messages in a day?
Diversify Media Buy
This is something, for small business owners, that can be tough. It takes creating your budget and then formulating a advertising plan on multiple different fronts. This, in itself, can be a difficult task. This is where a marketing agency, can assist. They do this kind of thing all day, every day. If you are a DIY advertising kind of business owner, take your advertising budget and break it up among the platforms that you have selected to advertise on. From here, start on only one of them and perfect your tactics, then move on to the next platform. I think it’s much easier to tackle one advertising platform at a time. But, remember, to diversify!
Influencer Marketing & Overthinking
This is a very common problem in digital marketing. A company wants to control every single minute detail of their advertising spend and doing this with influencer marketing is no different. When using a social media influencer, don’t overthink it. Let the influencer promote the product how they see fit. Sure, give them some ideas, but don’t try to change who they are. This is their social media channel and if you need to change the tone of the influencer, then you may want to move on to the next influencer that is a better fit for your brand. It’s much like marrying the person of your dreams so that you can change them. It NEVER works out!
Not Respecting Context of Social Platform
People join social platforms to be entertained and to communicate with friends and family! So, when your company is on social media, you need to do what Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Jab, Jab, right hook.” Don’t punch people in the face with your product or service. No one that’s on social media came for your product! Entertain, don’t disdain! If you can’t be their friend, they don’t care what you’re selling them. No one Cares about Your Brand!
Humility
Be humble! Your customers are the most important thing you have going for you, not your product. Being in love with your product is good, but being in love with your customer is great! This is the key to winning. You need to roll with your customers, not roll over them. Always talk to your customers, not at them. I love to see the companies we work with win. That’s why Brandfluencer is here. We don’t exist without customers. Our product is you!
If you are struggling with digital marketing and have questions, drop us a line on Twitter and use the hashtag #AskBrandfluencer or simply post your comments below!