Online Marketing Pitfalls To Avoid

Online marketing can be a tricky business as there are so many different facets to consider. Hiring the temporary services of an online marketing consultant can be invaluable in helping you to implement the latest marketing tools, strategies and technologies, but there are still plenty of common mistakes that any company can fall foul of – particularly if you are just starting out. Here we look at some of the most common online marketing mistakes and how you can try to avoid them:


Ignoring Social Networking: Almost every online business now is using social networking in some form to broaden their contact and increase visitors to their websites – and yet some companies still persist in thinking this is a fad that will go away. If you’re ignoring social networking then you are losing a valuable (and free) opportunity to become a real online presence in your industry sector.

Being Unavailable: Every website should include a contact email address for the company, but some are not so scrupulous about replying to queries or comments and this is a big mistake. Your visitors need to feel that you are available in some way and it’s also important for you to listen to and respond to their feedback if you want to make improvements in the way you do business. If you don’t respond to emails, you can’t build up relationships and trust with clients and they won’t want to come back to your site.

Ignoring Marketing Trends: The world of online marketing changes very quickly and you need to keep an eye on the latest trends. Some companies, however, insist upon using outdated methods because they have worked for them in the past. Yes, it can be a difficult task to keep up with every development, but if you really find you have no time at all to do this I would recommend you bring in the services of an online marketing consultant from time to time to keep you up to date with the latest strategies and tools. Otherwise, you risk being left behind.

Over-Complicated Website: Another common mistake made by online companies is to try to cram too much information into their websites. If you have a confusing number of links and too many graphics it will be difficult for users to navigate and they may get bored before they find the product they are looking for and make a purchase. Keep it clean and simple to use, and you stand much more chance of getting higher conversion rates.

Ignoring The Competition: Some companies are so busy working out their own strategies that they forget to keep an eye on what their main competitors are doing – and this can be disastrous. Visit competitors’ websites to find out what they are doing, whether they are using any new marketing methods and whether these seem to be working for them. There is no shame in taking ideas you have learned from competitors and integrating them into your own marketing plan – indeed, this is part of what business is all about. Another useful thing to do is to visit online forums in which you or your competitors might be discussed and see what clients or other businesses are saying about your relative strengths and weaknesses.

How To Improve Your Website’s Visibility

If you conduct a lot of your business online then ensuring you maintain high search engine rankings should be a major priority for you. There are plenty of ways you can do this – indeed, sometimes the advice you can find online is overwhelming – so the key is to find a search engine marketing strategy that will work for you and is simple enough to maintain long-term. Here are some examples of some of the steps you can take:


Design Is Key: To begin with, please do make sure that the look of your website is clean, high-impact and that it is easy to navigate. It’s no good spending a lot of time driving traffic to your site, only for visitors to be put off by its content the second they arrive. This will not encourage them to recommend other visitors and your visibility will suffer as a result. Also, remember that SEO is not just about getting visitors to your site – it’s also about converting those visitors into clients.

Update Your Content: Your website rankings will quickly drop if you don’t update your content regularly. Not only this, but if your site does not contain fresh information it will seriously undermine your credibility with clients, who will not be encouraged to return. Make sure that you are updating it with something new at least once a week, whether that is a fresh product line, an industry-specific article or news items.

Hire An Expert: Many people are put off by the extra cost involved in hiring in an expert to develop their search engine marketing strategy. It really does pay off, however, as they will be able to do your market research for you and identify the keywords you need to incorporate in your content to get relevant visitors to your site. Not only this, but a person whose job it is to know all the latest online marketing strategies and technologies will be able to give you a much better chance of gaining higher search engine rankings than your competitors. They will, for example, be aware of all the latest analytical tools so they can check your stats and use them to make your future marketing campaigns more targeted and efficient.

Blogging And Networking: Become a blogger to show off your knowledge of your industry sector. If you build up a reputation as somebody who knows what they are talking about, your readers will want to click on the link to your website because they will feel you are somebody trustworthy with whom to do business. The same applies to social networking: go on Facebook or Twitter and get involved in discussions relating to your sector. This is a great and free way to gradually generate a buzz about your business.

How To Boost Your Online Sales

An online business, like any other business, is always going to experience sales peaks and troughs. Sometimes the down periods will be owing to market fluctuations beyond your control, but more often there are some simple areas you are neglecting or overlooking which, if rectified, could help to boost your sales immeasurably. Whether you choose to hire an SEO marketing consultant to develop your marketing strategy, take steps yourself to improve your website functionality or hold special promotions, there are plenty of things you can try:


Website Design: To convert visitors to your website into paying customers you need to give them a positive user experience. This means it needs to be designed in such a way that it is easy to navigate, isn’t too cluttered with unnecessary and confusing imagery, and has a quick and simple payment process. If you don’t have any of the above, you are unlikely to get repeat business and this is where most companies get the majority of their sales from.

Product Range: The list of products on your website should come with clear and simple information on aspects such as their specific features, whether they come in different variations and how much they cost. Also, it helps if your product range is focused on one specific area. If you try to offer too many different kinds of products it can be confusing for customers and may also cause problems when it comes to SEO.

SEO Content: There aren’t many online companies these days that won’t be using SEO in one way or another – and there is a good reason for this. Identifying the right keywords and using these to boost your search engine rankings is a proven way to increase traffic to your website and win new customers. If you are unsure how to implement an SEO strategy, hire an experienced SEO consultant who will be able to get you up to speed with the latest trends in SEO, research the market for you and generally get you on the right track.

Targeted Email Marketing: In addition to the above, you should never overlook the effectiveness of a well-planned email marketing campaign. You should always organise your mailing list into categories of clients so you can target emails with certain product promotions to those who are most likely to be interested. A good product promotion or online sale is useful for providing a quick sales spurt if you are going through a particularly slow time.

Pay-Per-Click: If handled correctly, pay-per-click advertising services, such as Google AdWords, are a great way of getting new customers to your site in a relatively short space of time. You have to be prepared to put a certain amount of your marketing budget into this (so work out how much you can afford to pay per click) but the results will often speak for themselves so it’s worth looking into if your sales team are having trouble generating new leads.

Using Google AdWords To Increase Sales

Google AdWords or pay-per-click advertising is now one of the most popular forms of online marketing. It can provide a great boost to your sales if used correctly, but bear in mind that it pays to really understand how it works before you start using it: if you jump straight in at the deep end you could just be throwing money away to no purpose.


So how can Google Adwords benefit your company? To begin with, it is a relatively cheap way of getting your company’s adverts displayed on search lists and relevant sites and can help drive a lot of new traffic to your website in a short time, compared to other marketing methods which are more slow-burning.

Google AdWords is fairly cost-effective because you only pay each time somebody clicks on your ad, meaning you can be sure that for each payment you will at least have one new visitor to your website. Also, because it is quite a targeted form of advertising (the ads tend to be displayed on relevant websites) these visitors are more likely to be converted to paying customers because they are probably already interested in the kinds of products or services you offer.

Of course, there are a lot of potential pitfalls to using Google Adwords and if you don’t know what you are doing you may be paying out for each click and getting little back in the way of conversion rates. Because of this, many companies choose to hire a Google AdWords consultant to help them get to grips with how it works and implement an effective strategy.

Some companies think it is easy to learn about pay-per-click online and then dive right into it, but learning the theory of how something should work and actually putting it into practice are two very different things. A Google AdWords consultant has to keep up with all the latest trends and strategies in this area – it’s their livelihood – whereas you as a business owner or sales manager will have many other different things to think about and will never have the time to follow every single development in what is very rapidly changing world.

A good consultant will provide essential services such as researching the market and identifying the right keywords for your ads, finding out what methods your key competitors are using and showing you exactly how to manage your AdWords account so that you know how to review your progress, analyse conversion rates and generally ensure that your advertising is working for you rather than sapping your marketing budget and giving you little in return.