Here is why your Marketing Strategy is a Disaster

You’ve done everything right, from building an awesome site, doing on-page and off-page SEO to writing great content.

Still, it seems that nothing goes as planned.

Your traffic is growing, but it’s still unsatisfactory. On the other hand, the number of your customers stands still.

Well, these are some clear indicators that something is wrong with your marketing strategy.

The reasons for that are multiple. You may have targeted the wrong audience, chosen the wrong marketing tactics, measured some irrelevant metrics, or used the acquisition channels that don’t work for your brand.

But, don’t panic.

In the world of marketing, these mistakes are common.

You just need to detect them and prevent them from happening ever again.

Doing Marketing is Easy. I Don’t Need a Plan.

“Why should I hire a marketing specialist when I can promote my business on my own?”

“I’ll read a few articles online and learn everything I need to know about marketing.”

“I’ll build and modify my marketing strategy on the go. I don’t have time for that.”

This is something I’ve heard a thousand times. And, these words feel like a dagger in my heart.

Maybe in the past, there was a time where blood, tears, and sweat were enough for you to succeed. However, in today’s highly competitive marketing landscape, where there are thousands of companies similar to yours, targeting the same people and offering the same products, having an awesome business idea is not enough.

You need to stand out.

And, to stand out, you need to have a plan.

This plan includes several stages:

Doing a detailed target audience segmentation
Finding and analyzing your major competitors to see what marketing practices work for them
Setting clear objectives. Your goals need to be S (specific) M (measurable) A (attainable) R (relevant) T (timely).
Doing market research and choosing your communication channels according to the results you get
Setting the budget. You need to know how much you will allocate to each of your marketing techniques.

Traditional Marketing is Boring. I’ll Do Online Marketing Only.

Many marketing experts believe traditional marketing strategies are dead.

Still, all major brands invest heavily in this form of business promotion.

Why is this so?

Let me give you an example. Namely, eight years ago, Pepsi decided to move their entire marketing strategy online and invested millions of dollars in the idea behind the “Pepsi Refresh Project.” They promoted it online, generated millions of likes, shares, votes, and attracted new followers. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.

But, it didn’t.

Trying to reach out to Millennials and grab their attention, Pepsi forgot that there are more than 4 billion people who aren’t online. They still take a look at billboards, watch TV, and listen to the radio.

Pepsi lost these people’s trust and, with it, they also lost more than $350 million.

So, you shouldn’t run away from traditional means of marketing. You shouldn’t observe them as an isolated technique, either. On the contrary, you should merge it with your digital marketing ideas to give your overall promotion a boost.

Use traditional marketing to promote your online channels. Add your website address, hashtags, social media profiles to your billboards or even TV ads. You can also take your customers directly from print to digital. For example, you could use promotional items like printed mugs and add your QR code that will lead them to your landing page immediately. You can add these codes to your storefront displays, direct mail, business cards, as well.
Use your social networks to promote your offline events. Social media marketing is an awesome way to leverage user-generated content and show how popular and trustworthy your brand is.
Take advantage of guerrilla marketing. It’s cheap and super-engaging. You can organize a flash mob, throw a publicity stunt, use street art, etc.

My Traffic is Growing, I’m Golden.

You’ve familiarized yourself with a bunch of SEO tools. You keep track of your traffic regularly. Not to mention your social media performance.

So, if the number of your website visitors and social shares is rising, what does this mean to you?

I’ll be honest with you- this means nothing.

Your traffic grows, which is great, but the number of your customers needs to skyrocket, as well.

You need to convert your leads into sales.

How?

That’s simple. Make your site user-friendly.

Studies show that 80% of website visitors leave sites because they cannot find what they’re looking for. They don’t want to waste their time searching around. So, make it easy to navigate. Create a simple layout and offer a bunch of search options and filters.

Today, people read content and make purchases from the palms of their hands. So, make your site mobile-friendly. Pay special attention to your site’s speed. In the world of online marketing, every second counts. This is particularly true for ecommerce sites. Studies show that 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Create a powerful call to action. Never assume that your customers will take the desired action on their own. You need to guide them from the point A to the point B, right? And that’s where an effective CTA steps in.

When creating it, avoid using generic phrases. Come up with the text that makes sense for your brand and that is relevant to your target audience. You should also make it visually appealing. Use the form of a button, go with the right text size, and choose colors that stand out and yet mesh well with the rest of the page.

Tracking Results? What do You Mean?

What I love about marketing, especially digital marketing, is that everything you do can be measured.

If you target a set of keywords and start optimizing your content for them, you can track their performance.

When you create, post, and promote an awesome piece of content, you can measure how well it resonates with your target audience. Most importantly, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your promotional channels.

Your every link building opportunity can be checked. There is a bunch of tools that help you check their page authority, domain authority, referring pages, and other KPIs relevant to your SEO.

You can keep track of your website traffic, conversion rates, bounce rates, as well. This is how you can see what works for you and adapt your digital marketing strategy to these findings.

Finally, you can even measure the effectiveness of your traditional marketing campaigns with analytics. For example, you can dedicate a specific landing page to your offline promotion and track people’s engagement with it. The same goes for your domain, URLs, and promotional codes.

Over to You

If you feel like your marketing strategy is messed up, you’re not alone.

There is a plethora of businesses that come across this problem.

Luckily, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

All you need to do is understand what your major problem is and try to eliminate it gradually. To do so, you need to set clear and achievable goals and start building a reasonable strategy around them.

What challenges have you faced with your marketing strategy?