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Top Ten Digital Marketing Mistakes

#1. It’s All About Me

Businesses of all sizes often make the same mistake – particularly early on in their social media marketing strategy – they forget the SOCIAL in their social marketing.

It is a 2 way process, not a channel for you to continually push sales messages through. It is about engagements and conversation – remember PULL don’t PUSH.

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#2. Assume one size fits all

Often the local market is best served by a search engine that is local to that market too, it is not necessarily the UK search engines that are the most popular overseas – do your home work and take action appropriate for the market.

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#3. Failing to analyse results

Many businesses fail to use Analytics and fail to understand therefore their customers- when they engage, what they are interested in, what their likes and dislikes are and when they are actually online.

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#4. Putting the tools before the strategy

“I must be on Facebook/ Twitter / LinkedIn everyone else is…” The reality is you must know your audience and be where they are. Some businesses put the tools first and then build the strategy around them but this is a waste of resources. Be realistic and plan resources effectively based on the tools you need not necessarily the tools everyone else uses.

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#5. Wanting to go viral with first post

Be realistic. Set goals and make them achievable. It is not a “one size fits all” situation – many strategies will have to be tweaked and adapted as you go.Don’t give up if you don’t get the results you want because it’s “not working”, analyse and amend your plans.

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#6. Failing to invest properly

Many businesses see social media as “free” marketing and therefore fail to invest properly in it. It takes resources – so be prepared to pay for appropriate advertising or platforms to manage your media and it takes time – so be prepared to allocate staff resources to the strategy. Find an “expert” and use their time effectively.

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#7.Ignoring the growth in mobile To edit click View>Header and Footer 8

Globally, mobile users now exceed desk top users – but many businesses still fail to optimise their web and marketing messages for phone users.

#8.Ignoring traditional marketing

There is still a place for traditional marketing – as well as digital in the marketing plan. Ensure your marketing strategy is built around the needs of your audience and can mean traditional marketing such as Events and Exhibitions is still as effective as online marketing for the right audience.

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#9. Using google translate and nothing else

Always get your marketing collateral checked by a translation expert - a company or individual with a proven track record in translating for businesses.Never assume that free online translation services will do the job just as well.

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#10.Getting the traffic but failing to manage it

Create a good CRM system from the start – manage the data, ensure it is recorded appropriately and can be accessed appropriately by everyone in the organisation.

CRM and data handling is key to the success of the marketing strategy but failure to implement a good data handling system and record customers preferences and other information effectively leads to poor services and loss of sales.

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