7 Digital Marketing Problems & How to Fix Them

May 13, 2020

The shift toward adopting digital marketing has become almost mandatory for organisations of every kind and size. For small to medium businesses especially, it levels the playing field, allowing them to compete and attract prospects and turn them into paying customers without investing in expensive, traditional marketing.

However, establishing fruitful digital marketing campaigns have become more sophisticated than ever. How can small businesses establish a strong online presence, promote their brand, and outdo their competitors?

Here are seven common digital marketing problems that small businesses make and some solutions for them:

Challenge #1: Securing an Effective Budget for Digital Marketing

It’s a common misconception that you need a huge amount of money to invest in digital marketing strategies     .

Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do that that will only require free or minimum investment in tools and applications. These include:

• Google’s SEO Tools

Google offers a variety of data collection tools that help you analyse your website performance, like Analytics, Search Performance Console, and Page Speed Insights. Tools like Keyword Planner and Mobile-Friendly Test help you plan your content and tweak your website so that you can make it user-friendly.

• Social Media Channels

Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are free for organic content, allowing you to develop your brand and engage your audience.

• Paid Marketing Tactics

Pay-per-click and mobile marketing help you see the results of your campaign in a shorter length of time compared to organic SEO techniques that take a few months to get into their stride.

Aside from looking for cost-effective digital marketing methods, pay close attention to know which strategies are giving you a return on investment. If your budget permits, invest in tools that will help make the job easier for you and your team. Do no’t forget to continuously track your campaigns and try new methods when old ones fail to deliver results.

Challenge #2: Getting High Impression but Low Clicks

Do people engage your post but only a few take action? You might not be addressing the right audience.

This is where buyer personas come in. They are semi-fictional depictions of your ideal customers, generated from market research and data from existing customers. Knowing your ideal customer helps you create more targeted content and improve how you engage with your customers.

Creating a buyer persona doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Use a free survey to gather what current customers think about your products and services. Offer incentives to get your audience to participate.

Go through the data and find details that most of your customers have in common. Some buyer persona information to factor in are:

• Demographics:

  Age, marital status, nationality, race, ethnicity, educational and employment background

• Goals, Motivations, and Challenges:

  What your customer needs, wants, or is struggling with that your organisation can address

• Shopping Preferences:

  Online or physical shopping, behaviour on each stage of a buyer’s journey

Challenge #3: Lacking the SEO Know-How

Search engine optimisation is a staple for digital marketing. Ranking high on search engines and using relevant keywords makes it easier for your target audience to find the products or services you are offering when they search online.

Google’s algorithms continuously change. Staying updated with the latest changes is not really something that most small to medium businesses can effectively handle which is why hiring SEO services is a worthy investment. Any SEO service provider worth their salt should be able to assess the following elements on your website and optimise them:

• URLs:

  Avoid long and default URLs. Keep your URLs straightforward and make sure the keyword is included.

• Keywords:

  Make sure they are included in the meta title, meta descriptions, headings, and the first 100 words of your content. Use keywords sparingly throughout the text and make sure they’re added naturally.

• Links:

  Add links to credible sources that support your claims. Make sure to add links to posts within your website that are relevant to your new post.

• Page Speed:

  Get image size and resolution right by compressing files. This will improve your server’s response time for quicker loading speeds. The shorter a potential customer has to wait, the more likely they will stay on your site.

• Content:

  Your website content must address the needs of your customers in their current stage of the buyers’ journey. Add recent data and statistics to make your content more authoritative, but make sure they are concise and easy to read. There should be relevant calls to action at the end of the content to propel the buyer towards the ultimate conversion. Common CTAs include “Learn more”, “Try for free”, or “Buy now”. 

Challenge #4: Optimising on Multiple Devices

Today, more people are glued to their smartphones and tablets than they are on desktop and laptop computers. They expect a seamless browsing experience on your website regardless of what device they are using.

Creating a responsive, mobile-friendly version of your site is crucial. The site should detect the device your visitors are using and adapt to provide a smooth browsing experience. 

If your team does not have the time and resources to create a mobile-friendly website, outsource services from SEO agencies. As web design is part of SEO-friendliness, it is usually packaged with SEO services.

Challenge #5: Lacking Social Media Skills

Social media may not directly help your brand rank on search engine rankings, but platforms almost certainly help your brand get more exposure. Social media activities done well means greater authority and greater engagement with your target audience. 

Here are some ways you can enhance your digital marketing strategy through social media:

• Know which social media platform works best for your brand

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter may be the top three most popular social media platforms, but they may not be effective for your brand. For example, business-to-business clients may prefer to use LinkedIn when developing networks, and TikTok may be an excellent option if you’re targeting Gen Z clients who enjoy engaging with brands.  

• Determine which content your target audience reacts to the most

Find out what kind of content your audience interacts with the most. Images and videos tend to be more shareable than text content, but they must be relevant and enticing to share. You can post educational content, entertaining content, and anything in between. 

• Create a content calendar

Posting consistently keeps your audience engaged as your content will regularly show up on their feeds. Maintain a social media calendar to plan what content you want to share ahead of time. 

• Engage with your audience

Engaging with readers by replying and liking their content creates a less transactional relationship with your audience and helps personalise your brand. Tap into relevant conversations and respond promptly, especially to questions about your products or services.

Challenge #6: Generating Quality Traffic and Leads

Although the goal of content marketing is to drive traffic to your website, you want to attract quality traffic or site visitors that convert to leads and, eventually, sales. Of course, this is easier said than done.

Once you know your target audience then you can create content that they truly want, setting the foundation for lead generation and conversion. A leads generation campaign involves the following elements:

• Campaign Goals:

  “Generating as many leads as possible” is not a smart and measurable goal. Use your website’s past performance to come up with a specific target of traffic, leads, and conversion rate for a timeframe.

• Attractive Offer:

  Come up with an offer that your target audience will find useful and will encourage them to provide their information. Your offers can be e-books, case studies, free quotes, or free consultations.

• Post-Click Landing Page:

  Convince your prospects that your offer is worth downloading through a persuasive post-click landing page. This page includes an engaging headline, attention-grabbing images and videos, and a skimmable copy. Add reviews and testimonials from clients to show that your offer is worth claiming.

• Well-Designed Form:

  Make sure that your form is easy to use and has the fields that help retrieve the information you need.

• Strong Call to Action:

  Grab your reader’s attention with a persuasive call-to-action button that stands out on your page.

• Thank You Page:

  Aside from thanking your prospects for downloading, let them know where to find the resource (by downloading on the page or checking their email) and recommend other valuable resources on your site.

Challenge #7: Collecting Analytics and Insights

With huge volumes of data on the Internet, how would you know which ones are valuable for your business and digital marketing strategies?

Take the time to research data collection tools that are available to you. For smaller businesses, investing in costly analytics services when you can derive insights from free tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console is not always where your budget should go. That’s where your own research comes in. 

Sort through the available information and analyse what’s relevant for your business goals. Think of how you can tweak your digital marketing strategy or the goals of your organisation based on the data you’ve gathered.

Digital marketing is vital to small businesses just as it is to large organisations. Learning how to manage your way around the common challenges will help you better reach out to your target audience and create positive ROI.