7 Biggest Digital Marketing Mistakes Businesses Make, According to Experts [DesignRush QuickSights]

Digital marketing spend is expected to reach $146 billion by 2023. DesignRush reached out to experts to discover the biggest digital marketing mistakes businesses make.

MIAMI - MAY 13, 2022

According to Forrester, digital marketing spend will have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% and will reach $146 billion by 2023. With Statista’s report highlighting that 63% of the global population is online, it is clear why businesses use digital marketing as a tool to build a reputation and drive growth.

DesignRush, a B2B marketplace connecting businesses with agencies, leveraged its 13,000-agencies-strong network for quick insights – or “QuickSights” – on the biggest digital marketing mistakes businesses make.

1) NOT HAVING A CLEARLY DEFINED AUDIENCE

In the opinion of Tom Molnar, content strategist and SEO expert at Fit Design, failing to target the right audience is a waste of time and resources.

“Not having a defined target audience is a big mistake because it means businesses are wasting time and resources advertising to people who will never be interested in their product or service,” said Molnar. “Locating and targeting the right audience is vital.”

Excal Design Chief Design Officer Shubhra Bhargava agrees that narrowing down the audience is vital as it helps drive relevant leads and increase ROI.

“The biggest mistake companies make is that their digital campaigns target everyone with a computer,” said Bhargava. “The beauty of online marketing is that your target audience can be narrowed down a lot more than traditional marketing channels. With proper research, companies can define their target market clearly which will help in generating more relevant leads and improving ROI.”

2) NOT MEASURING ROI

Softuvo Solutions Head of Marketing & Business Strategy Tandeep Sangra suggests that forgetting to measure ROI is a bad practice because it is the key to modifying marketing strategies and evaluating success.

“Businesses often forget to measure the ROI and blindly throw money on digital marketing strategies,” said Sangra. “If you don’t know what you are getting from the campaign, then how will you evaluate the success of your strategy? It's crucial to modify the marketing strategy that isn’t working from time to time.”

3) FAILING TO PRODUCE GOOD CREATIVES

As stated by Gabe Harris, paid social expert and founder of Facqt, a creative is a powerful marketing tool that promotes originality and drives measurable results. But yet, many businesses fail to produce good creatives to spice up their marketing strategies.

"The creative is the most impactful variable a paid social advertiser has manual control over that drives originality,” said Harris. “Unfortunately, very few advertisers are good at producing creative that is designed to be consumed on paid social. By using paid social creative best practices, we've been able to lower our clients cost per lead [multiple times by more than 60%, resulting in] Meta [turning] our work into their own case study."

4) LACKING MARKETING FOCUS

Mark Anthony Media Founder Mark Anthony Rudder believes that one of the biggest digital marketing mistakes is the lack of strong focus.

"Most businesses don’t have a strong focus. If you want to grow fast, you need to have a targeted niche, a clearly defined audience and a big enough demand,” said Anthony. “You need to become a specialist in your area of expertise, then you focus on one lead generation strategy and one conversion strategy."

5) NEGLECTING CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION TESTING

According to Ursh Richards, business mentor and director at Web Team Adelaide, businesses that fail to test how well their websites convert visitors can waste a great number of resources.

“Businesses [that] have not properly tested how well their website converts visitors into leads and paying customers can waste an incredible amount of time and money on marketing activities driving people to their website,” said Richards. “Optimizing your website to be conversion-ready should be the first step in any digital marketing strategy.”

6) NOT BLOGGING CONSISTENTLY

According to LJ Barnum, Co-CEO and CMO-PR at GIT Digital Media, businesses shouldn’t stop blogging once they become successful. Instead, they should continue to engage their audience with quality content.

“Don't ignore content (blogging) once your business has gained traction!” said Barnum. “Sharing high-quality, original and engaging content is the best way to turn visitors into long-term clients because it helps build a meaningful relationship with the audience, impacts decision-making and helps generate qualified leads.”

7) NOT INVESTING ENOUGH IN INBOUND MARKETING

Jeffrey Magner, owner of Bighorn Local SEO, believes that businesses should pay less for advertising and invest more in inbound marketing to reduce costs and generate qualified leads.

“One of the biggest digital marketing mistakes businesses make is paying too much for "advertising" and not investing enough into organic/inbound marketing via Search Engine Optimization, business development and influencer marketing,” said Magner.

“Through inbound marketing, businesses can not only reduce expenses but also enjoy various benefits like increasing brand reputation, generating higher trust and credibility as well as driving quality leads and traffic.”

DesignRush released the May list of the best digital marketing companies that can help businesses target the right audience, engage customers and obtain better conversion rates on various digital channels.

1. Fit Design - fitdesignldn.com
Expertise: Social Media Marketing, SEO, Google Ads and more

2. Softuvo Solutions - softuvo.com
Expertise: Online Reputation Management, Content Writing, PPC and more

3. Facqt - facqt.com
Expertise: Campaign Management, Landing Page Optimization, Social Media Advertising and more

4. Mark Anthony Media - markanthonymedia.com
Expertise: Social Media Marketing, Local SEO, Advertising and more

5. Vision2Designs - vision2designs.com
Expertise: Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Branding and more

6. Excal Design - excal.design
Expertise: Social Media Marketing, Strategic Planning, SEO and more

7. Web Team Adelaide - webteamadelaide.com.au
Expertise: Search Engine Marketing, SEO, Email Marketing and more

8. Digital 970 - digital970.com
Expertise: Digital Advertising, Social Media Advertising, SEO and more

9. GIT Digital Media - gitdigitalmedia.us
Expertise: Media Buying, PPC, Conversion Optimization and more

10. Bighorn Local SEO - bighornlocal.com
Expertise: Local SEO, Multi-Unit SEO, Website SEO and more

11. Pure Inbound - pureinbound.com
Expertise: Content Writing, SEO, Social Posting and more

12. Bruce Oliver Consulting - bruceoliverconsulting.com
Expertise: Content Writing, Video Marketing, SEO and more

13. Pinchforth - pinchforth.com
Expertise: Paid Advertising, Email Development, Copywriting and more

14. ENX2 Marketing - enx2marketing.com
Expertise: Video Marketing, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing and more

15. Techoid - techoid.co
Expertise: Social Media, PPC, SEO and more

16. Digital Gravity - digitalgravity.ae
Expertise: Email Marketing, PPC, Social Media Marketing and more

Brands can explore the top digital marketing companies by location, size, average hourly rate and portfolio on DesignRush.

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