Nothing in business is easy, and this is why some companies are making a profit, other don’t. – Seth Godin
Do you also that your digital marketing strategy is a little late, a little slow? Several factors contribute to the inefficacy of digital marketing, and mostly, it is because of YOU. Yes, why else would it work for your competitors, but not your business? What are the elements that you fail to capitalise? Why can’t you read the market, or most importantly, your customers? If only your customers could start thinking about the way you do, things would have been so different. But clearly, it is not happening, is it? Let us find out the top-five reasons that are responsible for your failing digital marketing strategy and why you need to address them right away with learning advance digital marketing courses.
Because your content is just text
What are words? Just complicated airflow. – Succession, HBO.
Maybe in real-life conversations but in digital marketing, they are all you got. But they can’t be just text. Content comes alive in various life forms and can do wonder for your digital marketing strategy as well as business! There are videos, podcasts, guest blogging, influencer marketing, and social media stories that collectively double up as a content repository for your business and brand, leading to organic traffic. While a 1,200-word article maybe suitable for SEO and information, if you want to gain traction social media platforms, you need to make your content a lot more fun. Even the promotional material you send in emails has to be interactive, adorned with animation, HTML links, CTA and sometimes, a video!
Because you aren’t where your customers are
Your customers are having this illicit, steamy romance with their smartphones that your website can even dream of. They are cheating on you with their phones. Users are looking for restaurants, plane tickets, and even watching a movie on their phones. But your website isn’t optimised for mobile. Bummer. Expecting them to adjust with the user experience and performance of a desktop website on mobile is asking too much, especially when your competitor is bang-on with the mobile experience. Your customers won’t wait if the loading speed of the website is slow neither do the search engines if the website isn’t compressed, is slow or the images aren’t designed for a mobile experience, they will just swipe left on it.
Because you aren’t getting personal
Contrary to popular belief, your customers would like it if you know them a tad too better. They don’t like to be called ‘Dear Patrons’ or ‘Hello’. They don’t want to be a part of the mass you cater to. The customers want you to tell them what they like, what they don’t, what makes them tick, and what makes them holler! So, ask away. Be it in a series of questions or predictive analysis based on their previous browsing history, wishlist, shopping cart and payment methods, hyper-personalisation is the future of digital marketing and here to stay. It helps you cut through the clutter and make your customers listen to you amid the white noise of ‘me-too’ brands. Besides, the data modelling and analysis let the businesses quickly know what works for their customers, prompting them to stay one step ahead.
Because you aren’t answering
It is the weirdest thing that businesses tend to do. They make search engines the centrepoints of their digital marketing strategy and completely lose track of user intent. The eternal truth is it is your customers you are optimising for, not Google. If they don’t find the answers for the questions they have or you can’t seem to resolve their queries, you aren’t getting them the second time. Besides, chasing user intent is a continuous process. It is a journey, not a destination. Before you start with it, you need to find out what your customers are looking for and where they are looking for this information, then work backwards. Make it an omnichannel process and be everywhere with the answers, in the form they like. From your ‘about us’ page on the website to the product description and social media posts, they all should be meant to answer your customers’ specific search terms.
Because you are an elephant
Don’t get me wrong. I love elephants, but the digital world loves unicorns. Your customers don’t want you to sit on a pile of technology or data and do nothing! They want answers and their orders to be delivered to them, like yesterday. So, invest in ‘Live’ chat options, chatbot and AI- because it is where the future lies. Be prompt on social media, don’t ignore them and definitely, don’t delete the negative comments. Also, be a step ahead of them by using predictive analysis and gaining insights into user behaviour. The universe of digital marketing doesn’t work well within silos. So, be agile and proactive in your outlook. It is recommended to embrace and develop an integrated, omnichannel and responsive approach for better customer satisfaction and repeat customer transactions.
A digital marketing strategy firing blanks is the bane for a business’ existence. It just lies there, it doesn’t awe-inspiring, it doesn’t tell a story, it isn’t shocking, and most importantly, it doesn’t bring traffic- the only job that digital marketing strategy has! So, take a back seat and scan your digital marketing like a customer. If you can’t see any value in it, your customers can’t either. Unlike traditional marketing, you can pull the plug on a digital marketing plan when you like and make amends! So, you better do it now! Better late than never!