9 Mistakes to Avoid in Digital Marketing

The exponential rise of Digital Marketing in Nepal among businesses coincides with the evolution of the internet, modern gadgets, and its trends. With each passing day, more people rely on technology and the internet - to help govern their lives and business -  at an alarming rate. From a business's point of view, this shift has brought about a fundamental change in how potential customers are contacted. While the traditional or offline means of marketing are still helpful, no one can deny the opportunities online or digital marketing has to offer. Now that Nepal is also actively participating in the digital shift, Digital Marketing has become paramount in Nepal as well.

Many of you might already be working hard to some capacity, to make the best out of the digital market. Some of you might be natural at digital marketing and have already made significant strides in the field. However, for some, digital marketing remains a completely new concept. For those of you already in the know, this can be a useful article to learn new concepts. While for those of you just starting, this article is a good stepping-stone filled with guidelines and new concepts, which will help you transition into the digital world. 

Discover the 9 Common Missteps to Avoid in Digital Marketing

1. Using the wrong Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing is effective and efficient, but only when done correctly. To properly understand this concept, let’s take an example of a food delivery company XYZ. They want to gain more customers daily. Normally, people choose popular food delivery companies to get their food delivered to their doorsteps instead of searching for the XYZ company from a search engine. In the context of Nepal, food delivery is dominated by Foodmandu, so how can XYZ company get into the market? In such cases, a display advertisement or Social media marketing campaign can be more suitable than a Search Engine Optimization campaign or a Pay Per Click campaign. Therefore, you must analyze where your potential customers are before diving into Digital marketing.

2. Targeting the wrong group of audience

Targeting while setting up ads or posting them on social media or search engine optimization - greatly determines the success of a campaign. If you are reaching out to people that are not interested in your products or services - you will never make a conversion, even if you spend a lot of money on the campaign. Targeting the right group of people with the most suitable platform is essential to do better digitally. However, before launching a campaign, do sufficient research about your products or services and what demographics would be looking to buy your products on seeing your ads on their respective device.

3. Hiring a low-cost freelancer instead of an experienced company

Hiring a freelancer is okay, but only if the freelancer can provide genuine support to you. But is that really possible? More often than not, freelancers are typically working on multiple projects at once. This renders them unavailable to help you when you request support or have any issues that need to be fixed. Furthermore, a freelancer might have already moved to a different city or country after completing your project. Now, from a business perspective - you want to make a living and sustain your business for years to come. Keeping that in mind, can you take such a risk? My guess is, you cannot afford to take such a huge gamble with your livelihood.

A digital marketing agency like SoftNEP is equipped with professional and experienced professionals who can provide you with the best services and advice before taking on the project. They are also capable of providing you with round-the-clock support and updates whenever necessary. A freelancer might be cheaper, but good things never come cheap. Works are done by the majority of freelancers and often tend to sprout problems after the handover of the project. We are in no way insinuating that all freelancers are bad, instead, there are a lot of freelancers who provide top-notch service to their clients. The only thing is, these high-quality freelancers do not come cheap - giving credence to the earlier statement of good things are never cheap. 

4. Not targeting Mobile Devices

In today’s technology-savvy world, not targeting mobile devices is one of the biggest mistakes one can make. With a significant portion of the world’s population using mobile devices, it should be a no-brainer to any digital marketers that - mobile devices should not be excluded from your digital campaign at any cost. 

5. Not setting appropriate goals and missions

Goals and Missions are what drives a person or an organization as a whole. Setting achievable goals and formulating strategies accordingly gets the work done and goals achieved. Goals are short-term targets - typically 3-6 months, while Missions are long-term targets - typically in years. Sometimes, setting tough goals demotivates your teammates and when unsuccessful, they create a negative environment in the workplace. So, a digital marketing agency in Nepal should start setting goals whilst considering the business environment and potential of employees is vital - even in a digital market.

6. Using Click Baits

When you are in the online marketing industry, you are expected to come up with catchy headlines or titles to get as many visitors as possible. In that process, many marketers use clickbait to drive visitors. But is that a good practice for your business? Will those visitors convert into buyers? Certainly, not. They’ll come looking for one thing and end up seeing something else on your website. This also results in a higher Bounce Rate which is a bad signal for SEO.

Thus, if you are looking for long-term sustainability, using click baits not only drives traffic away from your site but also hampers your SEO ranking in the eyes of search engines. The bottom line is, that do not use click baits as a legitimate practice for digital marketing. 

7. Ignoring Customer Feedback and Reviews/Poor Customer Support

As many successful businessmen say “Customers are god”, customer response and satisfaction are key for all businesses to succeed. When your business operates in the digital realm, you must maintain a good reputation and reviews among your customers.

When the reviews coming in are good, it’s okay. But you might get a bad or negative review. Inevitably, you will eventually receive a negative review. When this happens. Don’t worry and above all don’t panic. This is completely normal. In this situation, you need to apologize to the customer for anything wrong you might have done, even if the service you provided was top-notch. Apologize and ask what caused them to feel dissatisfied with your service and what you can do in the future to prevent it from happening again. The customer may not change his/her review but your response leaves a positive image in their mind -  that you care about each customer’s experience and are working with you to better themselves. It shows a sense of responsibility in the community which helps your cause. Another person reading those reviews might feel good thinking of buying something from you after watching such customer care and support.

8. Sticking to a single posting pattern

You might be getting a good return on your campaigns now but have you ever thought about getting more? Changing your pattern to try new things might enable you to interact with more people. Interaction with more people means more business opportunities. You can try different techniques such as giveaways, contests, asking for public opinions, etc. When you mix things up, it keeps your visitors excited and interested in your content.

9. Spamming

Spamming on any platform will not help your business in the long run. Spam emails, comments or posts tarnishes your reputation and create a negative vibe among your possible customers. 

Which mistake are you going to correct today to escalate your traffic and conversions? Let us know in the comment section!