5 Digital Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Sep 04, 2017
10 min read
Nowadays, no matter how big or small a business is, it employs digital marketing strategies to attract new online leads, customers and visitors. With so many advanced methodologies and technologies available to the digital marketers today, still, they could be making serious mistakes that will prevent their marketing campaigns from driving the desired results or achieving acceptable performance. By avoiding these 5 potentially expensive digital marketing mistakes, you can make sure that your next digital marketing campaign does not meet with failure.
1. Having no Clear Goals
One of the biggest mistake that digital marketers make is “ not having clear goals”. Be clear about whether your marketing goals are to increase sales, leads, engagement, website traffic, or some other objective. Then try to create a plan or strategy to reach your goal that is specific, achievable, relevant and measurable as this will help you provide right direction to your marketing campaigns. Having desired goals will make your campaign more successful and effective.
2. Having no Social Media Strategy
Business without a social media strategy can never deliver an effective message to their target audience. To execute a successful Digital Marketing plan or campaign, a strategy must be in place. Set a clear social Media strategy. After all, Social Media is a free and most powerful tool to spread the word about your content and your business.
3. Buying Social Media Followers
Buying fake social media followers can help strengthen your business prominence and validate its social proof. But it will never help with increased Return on investment and nor will it improve your user engagement in case you have fake business followers The point here is to focus on genuine customer relationship rather than focusing on numbers.
4. Your website is not Mobile Friendly
As we are living in a digital era. Mobile Users or audiences are increasing, and the massive growth of video and social media is taking this forward. As a growing number of people are on mobile devices, it is becoming essential that digital marketers consider their customer’s mobile experience with their brand and website. Google Research also indicates, that most of the users nowadays prefer to purchase a product on a mobile-friendly website than a non-mobile friendly one.
5. Using Excessive and Irrelevant Hashtags
There is no doubt that the use of hashtags in Digital Marketing or Social Media Platforms can truly help businesses to become more visible. But using irrelevant and excessive hashtags can be annoying to users. To avoid this, limit your hashtags usage to a sensible and considerable number. Also, make sure they are relevant to what you are trying to convey.
There is no doubt that the world will soon shift completely from analog to digital practices. Digital Marketing is so essential in the present digital world because it is one of the fast growing terms in the current marketing field and also it is set to become the future of marketing industry.
If you correct the above described 5 Digital Marketing mistakes, you can reach your end goal and increase your sales. For more information about Digital Marketing,Contact us!
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Revealing The Secrets Of Content Marketing: What Really Works And What Doesn’t
So what is the biggest challenge in B2B marketing? It sure has nothing to do with which color tie you wear in a presentation. It’s all in a word: Leads A lead is where it all begins, so the very obvious question a B2B marketer must ask is “Where and How do I get those leads?” But if you type in Google: “how to get B2B leads.” You’ll get all the weird lies that you could imagine. So let’s not get down into the same drain of things, and get into some really working ideas so that you start generating leads regardless of the industry you belong. Following was the graph obtained from HubSpot A lot of the leads are expectedly coming from PPC, social media advertising, etc. but the fact that is most baffling is the blue bar on the rightmost corner stating “other”- that means even HubSpot cannot tell us where most of the B2B leads come from. The most important thing that can be incurred from this graph is that getting “leads” has to do a lot with the lifestyle of constant marketing efforts, cultivating industry relationships, and the mash-up of all kinds of interactions, activities, behaviors, and efforts. So rather than focusing on any one channel, understand that B2B lead generation is a composite of unquantifiable activities and behaviors that just work. The Digital revolution in the B2B industry It has introduced a flood of techniques, the decline of old ones, and a reorganization of all techniques, but the goal remains the same- conversions. Now summing up all the strategies and coming to the point of how to generate leads, we’ll sum it up all: 1. Using social media strategically Before we push through the strategies, we need to have a look at some of the warnings beforehand: Don’t expect merely a social media presence to be a source of leads. Though your presence is important but not always effective. Sometimes it’s just not enough to tweet daily or have a page on LinkedIn. You should not dismiss social media channels as a source of leads. Many articles online claim that social media is a holy grail for generating leads, but don’t go that far. You should not neglect it that far. It is a very good channel to communicate with clients. Twitter has proved to be ineffective A Forbes Article from 2013 made tall claims that Twitter was proven effective than Facebook and LinkedIn and generated much more leads for business-to-business models. Though we don’t say that it is not true but the claim was not based on such proof. Then, another company, InsideSales.com wrote in their study that social media was low-effective but high in usage in their lead generation technique quadrant: The reason behind the failure of social media channels proving to be effective for B2B firms is the fault of marketers because they have been doing it all wrong. How Social Media Can Work to Generate Leads To harness the full power of social media channels: Let Visitors from Social Media visit your website: Make it easy for them to visit your website from your social media page. Provide multiple links to the website, ideally to your landing pages where they signups with their emails and contact details willingly. Let them sign-up for newsletters: a great way to generate leads is to let people directly sign-up for newsletters through your social media channel. Use CTAs:Do not hesitate in providing proper CTAs for visitors to click on. Invite feedback, links to landing pages, suggest next steps, etc. LinkedIn Is Effective LinkedIn ranks consistently the highest among the social media platforms for its B2B lead generation value. It is the biggest and brawniest in terms of numbers of professionals, and a large percentage of decision-makers. Tips: Get on the platform and be active. Get connected with your colleagues and other industry professionals. LinkedIn has a huge network of groups that you can join. You can easily find groups that contain professionals who are likely to become your leads. There are numerous groups on LinkedIn where endless conversations involve decision-makers, being active in these conversations means making your stronger marketing presence among people who matter. You can ask for help from people who are qualified in your industry and can help you with your project, point you in the right direction, or recommend a solution to a problem. You can also use the paid LinkedIn lead collection tool. This tool allows users who come across your company page to request the contact details. These leads are generally genuine warm leads. 2. Use Content Marketing Using content marketing can always bring in genuine and warm leads. It is the type of marketing that is used by most informed users. Content Marketing has grown for B2Bs. According to a study conducted by Content Marketing and Marketingprofs, 91% of B2B respondents use content marketing for making a buying decision. What you should do with content marketing Since content marketing is a vast field, there are numerous ways to generate leads through content marketing: Host a Webinar: Webinars aren’t a method of selling something but are a way to inform your audience about something they are interested in and that is supplied by you. To find a topic that appeals to your industry segment and plan webinars on topics regularly. Utilize Research reports: Research reports are not only a way to gain and supply facts but they also give a great way to invite a flood of connections from interested leads. Videos:Videos have a huge potential to go viral in no time if they rightly target and appeal to your audience. Blogs: Blogs are also a great way to feed information to your audience who were already searching for the right content on the web to solve their problem. If you do it rightly, then people will come to your site for the particular segment of information they want. For example, healthcare websites can regularly supply health-related information. ...
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Google Tag Manager: Simplifying Website Tracking and Tag Implementation
The efficient management of marketing tags is crucial for tracking user actions and collecting valuable data. However, manually inserting and maintaining numerous code snippets in your website's code can be daunting. Enter Google Tag Manager (GTM), an indispensable free tool that revolutionizes the way marketing tags are installed, stored, and managed. Now if you have found yourself wondering ‘what are Google tags’ or ‘why do you use Google Task manager’, this thorough guide is the article for you! In this article, we will delve into the technical intricacies of GTM and explore how it empowers tech-savvy professionals to streamline marketing tag deployment. What are Google Tags? Google tags are small snippets of code that are inserted into a website's code to track user actions and collect data for various marketing and analytics purposes. These tags are essential for platforms like Google Analytics and Google Ads to function effectively. By placing these tags strategically within the website's code, marketers can gain valuable insights into user behavior, measure campaign performance, and make data-driven decisions. Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a free tool that simplifies the installation, management, and deployment of these marketing tags, providing a centralized platform for streamlined tag management without the need for manual code modifications. Why Do You Need a Google Tag Manager? Let's try and decode this for those who are wondering ‘what is google tag manager used for’. Google Tag Manager tool (GTM) empowers you to track a wide range of events and user behaviors on your website. The flexibility of GTM enables you to capture and analyze valuable data related to user interactions. Here are some examples of commonly tracked events: Link Clicks: Measure the number of clicks on specific links within your website, such as navigation menus or promotional banners. Button Clicks: Track the interactions with buttons on your website, including form submission buttons, download buttons, or CTA buttons. Form Submissions: Monitor when users successfully submit forms on your website, such as contact forms, lead generation forms, or newsletter sign-ups. Conversions: Track the completion of desired actions, such as completed purchases, sign-ups, or registrations, to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Shopping Cart Abandonment: Identify instances where users abandon their shopping carts before completing a purchase, helping you optimize the checkout process and reduce the cart abandonment rate. Adding and Removing Items from Cart: Monitor when users add items to their shopping carts or remove items from the cart, allowing you to analyze product preferences and optimize your e-commerce strategy. File Downloads: Track the number of downloads for specific files or resources on your website, such as PDFs, whitepapers, or software installations. Scroll Behavior: Analyze how users engage with your content by tracking scrolling behavior, including how far users scroll on a page or whether they reach specific content sections. Video Views: Measure the number of views and engagement metrics for videos embedded on your website, providing insights into user engagement with video content. Call-to-Action (CTA) Performance: Evaluate the effectiveness of your CTAs by tracking clicks, conversions, or engagement rates on important call-to-action elements across your website. Table of Contents (TOC) Clicks: Monitor user interaction with the table of contents or navigation menus within long-form content pages, helping you understand which sections are most engaging to users. Custom Events: GTM offers the flexibility to define and track custom events that align with your specific business objectives and user interactions. What are the Benefits of Google Tag Manager google tag manager (GTM) offers several benefits for managing tags on your website. Here are some of the advantages of using GTM: Simplified Tag Management: GTM provides a centralized platform for managing all your marketing tags in one place. Instead of manually editing website code, you can easily add, update, or remove tags using the GTM interface. Reduced Dependency on Developers: With GTM, you can implement and manage tags without relying heavily on developers. This empowers marketers and non-technical users to take control of tag deployment and makes the process more efficient. Faster Deployment: GTM allows you to deploy tags in real-time without requiring code changes. This saves time as you can quickly launch new campaigns or update existing tags without waiting for developers to make code modifications. Increased Flexibility: GTM provides flexibility in managing tags, triggers, and variables. You can define custom rules and conditions to control when and where tags should be fired based on user interactions or specific events on your website. Enhanced Tracking Accuracy: GTM ensures accurate and consistent tag firing by using triggers. You can set up triggers to fire tags based on specific actions or events, such as clicks, form submissions, or page views. This improves the accuracy of data collection and tracking on your website. Version Control and Rollback: GTM offers version control, allowing you to track changes made to tags over time. You can easily roll back to a previous version if any issues arise or revert to a known working configuration. Testing and Debugging: GTM provides built-in tools for testing and debugging tags before deploying them live. This helps identify and resolve any issues or conflicts with tags, ensuring proper functionality and accurate data collection. Ecosystem Integration: GTM seamlessly integrates with various third-party platforms and services. You can easily add tags for Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, and many other marketing and analytics tools without modifying code. Best Extensions Browser extensions play a crucial role in optimizing your Google Tag Manager (GTM) strategy. These extensions provide valuable insights and assistance in managing your tags, variables, triggers, and code snippets effectively. Here are some recommended extensions that can enhance your GTM efforts and contribute to a successful Google Tag Manager strategy: Tag Assistant: Tag Assistant is a powerful extension developed by Google that helps you troubleshoot and validate your tags. It provides real-time feedback on the firing status of your tags, identifies implementation errors, and offers suggestions for improvement. With Tag Assistant, you can ensure that your tags are correctly implemented and functioning as intended, supporting your overall GTM strategy. GTM/GA Debugger: This extension is specifically designed to debug and analyze Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics implementations. It allows you to view detailed information about the data being sent, debug variables, track events, and diagnose any issues that may arise. GTM/GA Debugger enables you to validate your GTM strategy by ensuring accurate data collection and tracking. Dataslayer: Dataslayer is a handy extension that displays all the data layer information captured by GTM in real-time. It provides a comprehensive view of the data layer variables, making it easier to verify if the correct data is being passed to your tags. Dataslayer enhances your GTM strategy by enabling you to monitor and validate data layer interactions and ensure data accuracy. DataLayer Inspector: This extension offers advanced data layer inspection capabilities, allowing you to explore and understand the data layer structure in detail. It provides a visual representation of the data layer, highlights data changes, and assists in troubleshooting data layer-related issues. DataLayer Inspector+ empowers your GTM strategy by facilitating a deeper understanding and management of your data layer. Da Vinci Tools: Da Vinci Tools is a versatile extension that enhances your overall GTM strategy by offering a range of features. It provides a tag manager interface within the browser, allowing you to preview and test changes before deployment. Additionally, it offers various debugging functionalities, data layer visualization, and detailed reports to optimize your GTM workflow. In Conclusion implementing and managing tags effectively is a critical aspect of a successful Google Tag Manager (GTM) strategy. By utilizing browser extensions, you can enhance your tag installation process, troubleshoot issues, validate data accuracy, and gain valuable insights into your GTM implementation. However, navigating the complexities of tag installation and maximizing the potential of GTM can be overwhelming for some businesses. That's where the expertise of GTM consultants and tag consultants comes into play. With their in-depth knowledge and experience, they can ensure seamless integration with your overall digital marketing strategy. If you're looking for professional assistance in implementing and maximizing the benefits of Google Tag Manager, consider partnering with Saffron Edge, a leading GTM consultant. Our team of experienced tag consultants can help you harness the full potential of GTM. Connect with us today! ...
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Email Marketing Automation Workflows: Benefits, Set Up and Examples
A lack of email automation means your marketing team could miss important opportunities to nurture and engage your target audience and contacts. One of the most impactful tools available to marketers today is email automation. According to Radicati , the global email user base totals 2.6 billion, with Facebook accounting for about two-thirds of that number. Adobe's research indicates that we're dedicating 17% more time to our inboxes this year than last year. Automating email workflows can significantly enhance your email marketing strategy by delivering personalized, timely, and relevant messages to your subscribers. This blog post will explore email workflows, their benefits, how to set them up, and some examples of automated email workflows that can boost your marketing efforts. What is an Email Marketing Automation Workflow? An email marketing automation workflow consists of emails automatically sent out based on specific actions or conditions a marketer determines. Essentially, it’s a predefined set of emails designed to nurture leads, engage customers, or drive specific actions based on user’s interactions with your brand. This email marketing workflow is tailored to guide subscribers through their customer journey, maximizing engagement and conversion rates. For example, suppose customers sign up for your newsletter. In that case, they might receive a welcome email as the first step in a workflow, followed by emails providing value, promoting products, or encouraging further engagement. Unlike traditional email marketing, where each email is sent manually, email workflow automation enables you to schedule emails automatically according to user behavior, preferences, or other predetermined criteria. This ensures that every email is relevant to the recipient, boosting engagement and conversions. Incorporating marketing automation services can help streamline the process of personalizing content and segmenting audiences effectively. The Benefits of an Automated Email Workflow Automated email workflows offer numerous advantages for businesses seeking to streamline communication with their audience and optimize their marketing efforts. By leveraging the power of automation, companies can deliver timely, personalized messages while nurturing leads and driving conversions. Let's see how email automation can benefit marketers: 1. More Seamless Workflow Email automation enables marketers to efficiently send emails to their customer base, freeing up time for other responsibilities while meeting customer needs. According to 49% of sales and marketing professionals , time saved on repetitive tasks is one of the top three benefits of automation. Additionally, 45% listed enhanced efficiency and return on investment as another advantage. 2. Better Customer Experience 43% of marketing professionals believe that the primary benefit of employing marketing automation is improving customer experience. Automated emails efficiently send customers engaging content, including incentives, useful reminders, and introductory information A well-structured customer onboarding workflow can further enhance this process by ensuring new customers are effectively welcomed and educated through automated email sequences. Consistently engaging with your customers fosters improved relationships, enhances retention rates, and generates additional leads. 3. Improved Email Segmentation Email marketing automation simplifies categorizing recipients according to their characteristics, actions, and interaction levels. This boosts engagement, the rate at which emails are opened, the conversion rate, and the rate at which recipients click through the content. 4. Fewer Errors Mistakes can still happen even when using copy-pasting or templates for your emails. Email automation allows you to map unique user variables to appropriate template sections and instantly dispatch personalized emails. 5. Improved Personalization Automated workflows enable businesses to deliver targeted and relevant content to segmented audiences based on their behavior and interactions, enhancing customer engagement and driving higher conversion rates. 6. Enhanced Efficiency Email automation workflows save time and resources by streamlining repetitive tasks such as sending welcome emails, follow-ups, and personalized messages, allowing businesses to focus on more strategic aspects of their marketing campaigns. 7. Enhanced Lead Nurturing Automated email workflows are pivotal in lead nurturing automation by intelligently delivering personalized content based on subscriber actions and interests. Businesses can effectively guide leads through the sales funnel by automating the delivery of relevant information at various stages of the customer journey and by maintaining ongoing communication with existing customers through targeted email campaigns, ultimately increasing the likelihood of conversions. 8. Data-Driven Insights Automated email workflows provide businesses valuable data and analytics regarding email performance, subscriber behavior, and overall campaign effectiveness. By leveraging these insights, businesses can make informed decisions, optimize their email marketing strategies, and tailor their content to better resonate with their audience. Let’s break through your revenue hurdles We find your primary growth blockers, build expert-led strategies, and provide custom data-driven solutions to help you hit your revenue goals. Set up a 1:1 strategy call How to Automate Email Workflows? Setting up automated email workflows might seem daunting initially, but with the right tools and a strategic approach, you can easily automate your email marketing. Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up an email workflow automation: 1. Select Email Automation Software Choosing the right email automation software is the process's first and most crucial step. Numerous email marketing automation tools are available, each offering unique features and capabilities. For this example, we’ll focus on HubSpot’s Marketing Automation tool, but depending on your needs, other options, such as Moosend, Versium Reach, and Mailchimp, are also worth considering. 2. Identify Your Audience Before setting up your email workflow automation, define who you want to target. Segmentation is key here—you might segment your audience based on lifecycle stages, behaviors, or specific actions they’ve taken on your site. Conduct market research to understand industry trends, competitors, demographics, and behavior patterns. Define your ideal customer by creating a detailed profile including age, gender, location, interests, priorities, and challenges. Analyze customer data to identify demographics, purchasing behavior, and interest patterns. Refine your ICP (ideal customer profile) based on analysis and develop targeted messaging and outreach strategies. Utilize segmentation and personalization for more effective communication. Marketing automation tools such as HubSpot enable audience segmentation so that each recipient receives the most appropriate content. 3. Define Your Email Campaign’s Goals Understanding your campaign goals is essential for creating an effective workflow. Defining your goal helps craft messages that guide your audience toward the desired action. Also, ensure your automation setup can adjust when a goal is achieved—for example, unenrolling a customer who has already purchased. Here are the key questions to ask yourself to define your email campaign's goals, informed by the information retrieved from the search results: What do you want to achieve from your email campaign? How does the email campaign align with your marketing goals and business objectives? What are the appropriate metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your email campaign? How can you personalize your messaging and segment your audience to align with your campaign goals? What past performance data can be used to inform your email campaign goals? Determining the goals and objectives of emails with the help of a marketing automation specialist is essential for success. 4. Set Enrollment Criteria Enrollment criteria determine which contacts enter a specific workflow. Depending on your tool, you might set criteria for new subscribers, abandoned cart users, or customers who have clicked on specific links. For example, HubSpot allows for multiple triggers, including form submissions, page views, and contact properties. Leveraging the best email marketing automation tools can significantly enhance marketing automation strategies . 5. Choose Which Processes to Automate Sales process workflows can be highly customizable. Decide which actions you want the software to automate, such as sending follow-up emails, updating customer information in your CRM, setting reminders, and more. These automated processes ensure seamless and consistent communication with your audience. 6. Create Your Email Campaign Assets Now that you have a plan, it’s time to create your email assets—this includes drafting the emails, creating compelling subject lines, designing templates, and adding CTAs. Ensure all content is aligned with your campaign goals and provides value to the recipients. 7. Test Your Email Workflow Before going live, always test your workflow. This can assist you in identifying some of the mistakes or inconsistencies that may impact the campaign's success. Test everything, from the content and links to the sequence of emails and triggers, to ensure it works as expected. 8. Launch and Monitor Your Workflow Once you’re satisfied with the setup, make your workflow live. Monitor its performance closely, looking for any anomalies or areas for improvement. Email automation is not a one-time setup—it requires continuous optimization based on performance data. Working on these steps in marketing automation integration is essential for maximizing the potential of SaaS marketing automation tools. 10 Email Marketing Automation Workflow Examples Here are a few practical examples of automated email workflows that can help you achieve different marketing goals: 1. Welcome Email Workflow Trigger: When a new subscriber joins your email list. Objective: To introduce your brand and set expectations. Details: Send emails that welcome the subscriber, share your brand story, and highlight key products or services. You can also include a special offer to encourage a first purchase. 2. Lead Magnet Delivery Workflow Trigger: When a user signs up to download a lead magnet (e.g., eBook, whitepaper). Objective: To deliver the promised content and nurture the lead. Details: After delivering the lead magnet, follow up with educational emails that provide additional value and guide the lead toward the next step, such as booking a demo or consultation. 3. Free Trial Sign-Up Workflow Trigger: When a user subscribes to your website or downloads your product or service for a free trial. Objective: To guide the user through the trial period and encourage conversion to a paid plan. Details: Send onboarding emails with tips and tutorials, followed by emails highlighting the benefits of upgrading to a paid plan before the trial expires. 4. Re-Engagement Workflow Trigger: When a subscriber has been inactive for a specific period (e.g., 3 months). Objective: To re-engage inactive subscribers and prevent churn. Details: Email a compelling offer, such as a discount or exclusive content, to reignite interest. If there’s no response, follow up with additional emails to re-engage or gracefully unsubscribe the inactive user. 5. Abandoned Cart Workflow Trigger: When a customer has selected products but doesn’t complete the purchase. Objective: To recover potentially lost sales. Details: Send a reminder email shortly after the cart is abandoned, offering assistance or a discount code to encourage completion of the purchase. Follow up with additional reminders if necessary. 6. Replenishment Workflow Trigger: When a customer’s product is likely to run out based on purchase history. Objective: To encourage repeat purchases. Details: Send an email reminding customers to reorder their products before they run out. Include a convenient “one-click” reorder button and a special offer for loyal customers. 7. Lead Nurturing Workflow Trigger: When a lead engages with specific content, such as visiting a pricing page or downloading multiple resources. Objective: To nurture leads through the sales funnel. Details: Create emails that provide additional information, case studies, and testimonials relevant to the lead’s interests, gradually guiding them toward a sales conversation. 8. Onboarding Workflow Trigger: When a new customer makes their first purchase or signs up for a service. Objective: To ensure a smooth and successful onboarding experience. Details: Send emails introducing the customer to your product or service, providing training resources, and offering support. This helps reduce churn and increases the likelihood of long-term customer retention. 9. Upsell/Cross-Sell Workflow Trigger: When a customer completes a purchase. Objective: To encourage additional purchases. Details: Based on the customer's purchase history, send personalized recommendations for complementary products or upgrades. Highlight how these additional products/services can enhance the customer’s experience. 10. Post-Purchase Follow-Up Workflow Trigger: After a customer makes a purchase. Objective: To build customer loyalty and encourage repeat business. Details: Send a thank-you email and a feedback or review request. Later, send emails with related product recommendations, loyalty program invitations, or special offers for repeat customers. Conclusion Automated email workflows can greatly benefit businesses aiming to enhance their email marketing strategies By leveraging email workflow automation, you can deliver highly personalized and timely messages to your subscribers, improving engagement and driving conversions. At Saffron Edge , we offer customized marketing solutions that meet your business requirements, including setting up effective email marketing automation workflows. Our team will help you develop and enhance the procedures that align with your business goals and create tangible outcomes. ...
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