1. You’re Too Scared to Fail

Scared to fail? Well then prepare to, um…fail. Because successful digital marketing both enables and requires an element of testing. And you can bet your bottom line that you’re not getting anywhere without a little guesswork and trialing.

So unless you want to kiss goodbye to innovation and growth and new business realisations you’ll have to become comfortable with the possibility (and probability) of failure. But here’s the important thing to remember: every time an element of your strategy “fails” you’re one step closer to figuring out what works.

Your Digital Marketing Fix:

View failure in terms of what you’re gaining – that’s a deeper insight into your audience’s behaviour along with a greater knowledge about what your digital marketing campaigns need. When creating your digital marketing strategy prepare some carefully crafted questions – these are the things you’d love to know the answer to and want to test.

For example, if you’d like to know which paid social media platform will help you gain the best quality leads for the lowest Cost Per Click, there’s only one way to do it- through testing and careful analysis. Start with a set of clearly defined KPIs and continuously measure and monitor your KPI’s success using a tool like Google Analytics.

2. Your Customers Come Last

You don’t have the time to respond to social media comments, queries, complaints and compliments. That makes sense when you’re trying to generate new leads and make new sales, right? In the midst of the endless daily activities and new innovations sprouting up it can be all too easy to forget about the one thing that matters most – your customer. But that’s a big mistake!

At the Web Summit, David Steinberg and John Scully discussed the important role the customer plays in digital marketing. They revealed, “It’s just as important to calculate the loss of losing a customer as the cost of gaining one.”They also revealed that it is 15 to 18 times more expensive to replace a customer than to gain a new one. Seem pricey, pointless and plain crazy!

Your Digital Marketing Fix:

Digital marketing is about building trust and loyalty and encouraging engagement. So focus on your customers first (both existing and new) and only adapt to new technologies or trends if they genuinely benefit your audience. Your entire digital marketing strategy should be focused around your consumer and their experience (how you make them feel and the problems you can help them fix).

So continuously look out for new solutions that can enhance your audience’s experience and never let your customer-centric strategy remain stagnant. For example, you could trymulti-channel marketing (reaching customers on various platforms and enabling them to choose how to receive and interact with your messages). To do so you’ll need to ensure your website is optimized for all devices and that your messages remain consistent across all platforms.

3.You’re Freaking Out About Content

You can’t read a digital marketing article or go to an industry event without encountering the buzzword of the moment – yep, you guessed it – ‘content marketing.’ By now you know that content creation affects everything – from your SEO and your social media, to your mobile marketing and your email campaigns. And you’re freaking out about it.

You can’t read a digital marketing article or go to an industry event without encountering the buzzword of the moment – yep, you guessed it – ‘content marketing.’ By now you know that content creation affects everything – from your SEO and your social media, to your mobile marketing and your email campaigns. And you’re freaking out about it.

Your Digital Marketing Fix:

Get focused, take a step back and consider why content creation has become so important over the past few years. It’s because Google and social media networks are moving increasingly closer to putting the needs of their customers first. You should be doing the same.

Brainstorm some ideas for the kind of value you can bring to customers with your content. It’s important at this stage not to rush into any assumptions of what your ideal customer might like to read. Instead consult your personas to gain a deep insight into your customer’s emotional desires, delve deep into your Google Analytics account to analyse their online behavior. And try a quick survey to assess the topics they’d like to read.

Decide on what your content value proposition is – is it to educate, to inform or to entertain, for example? Then create a cleverly crafted content plan complete with a content calendar. Your content calendar should document the titles of the posts you’ll create, where you’ll post them and at what times (this can be altered at a later date as you analyse your results and learn what’s working).