As an entrepreneur, you feel like you need to be an expert in everything. But in reality, you’re not. Often you just have to play it by ear. Otherwise, you’d be spending all your time reading and researching and none of your time getting down to business.
Having the right digital strategy, however, is vital to the success of your company. The problem is that these days, digital strategy is a technical discipline, best carried out by experts. As a result, most enterprises aren’t doing enough to incorporate it into their everyday operations.
Here we’re going to look at some of the less well-known pitfalls companies must avoid if their digital strategy is to be a success. Are you making any of these mistakes?
Failing to make digital strategy a priority
Some companies take an on-off approach to digital marketing. In January and February, they focus on marketing their content. And then for the rest of the year, they take their foot off the gas. As the year goes on, they get fewer and fewer leads, and their business starts to tank.
Big marketing efforts might have worked wonders in the past. But now content is so distributed; marketing needs to be drip-fed. Too many small companies don’t back up their big marketing push with smaller, local marketing efforts.
You don’t use data
Using data is tough. You need to have the skills not only to collect it but also understand it. Using big data is even more difficult. Processing this kind of data often requires specialist platforms like Hadoop and MongoDB. It’s the sort of thing most businesses leave to the experts.
But failing to use data to drive your digital strategy is a big no-no. It puts your company at a massive disadvantage. And it denies you the opportunity to develop genuine business intelligence.
Your business, however, doesn’t have to go it alone. Companies, like Elementary Digital, interpret data and use it to construct better marketing strategies. This way, you can finally dive into all those data you’re collecting and actually make use of them.
You rely on outbound marketing
Outbound marketing is the polite way to say “spam.” And companies that rely on outbound marketing are those that rely on spamming their customers. There are two main problems with the outbound approach.
One is that it is rarely an effective pitch. With email click through rates hovering around 4 percent, outbound marketing is mostly wasted. The other problem is that it makes your company an irritation. Sending customers spam emails every day is hardly going to pull them through your proverbial door.
You pick the wrong channels
Most small businesses market their products through standard social media channels, like Facebook. Why? Because they’re popular and most likely to provide exposure for their brand. But these social media channels might not be the best place to grab the attention of your target audience.
If you’re selling something highly specific, like fishing tackle, it might be a better idea to blog on a fishing website. This way you get your content right in front of your intended audience.