Digital marketing has rapidly evolved in recent years, but in order for it to be effective it requires a great deal of hard work and effort when compared with offline marketing techniques. Outlined below are some important digital marketing traps that you need to be aware of in order to be a success:
1. Don’t create amazing content but fail to promote it
Countless businesses out there use a blog to promote their products or services but fail to promote that content using social media channels. Social media has the power to throw your business into the limelight, so use it to its full potential to attract a wider audience and expand sales.
It’s important to get your content out there, promoting it on the platforms where your target market spends the majority of their time. This will enhance the chances of your content being viewed, which in turn will increase brand awareness and global brand recall.
2. Don’t be afraid of failure
Yes, you may have worked particularly hard on your latest campaign, but there’s nothing to say that it’s going to be a success. It can be difficult to predict what will resonate well with your online audience so through trial and error you can try different things and analyse data to establish where interest in your latest campaign peaks and drops. This will give you ammunition for future campaigns.
Oreo Cookie has a vast social media following but the brand has worked extremely hard to create innovative campaigns that push boundaries, trigger emotions and keep followers on their toes. Yes, the brand has had its fair share of failures, but the vast majority of its posts are engaging and trigger a positive response.
3. Don’t be afraid to get a conversation going
McDonald’s has always pushed boundaries when it comes to digital marketing and the brand recently hosted an online Q&A inviting customers to ask questions about McDonald’s food. The company, which promised to answer every question asked, took the time to respond to more than 20,000 questions – even those that were more controversial or critical.
This added depth to the brand and gave people a sense of transparency and trust, boosting the brand’s status from a trailing position to a top position amongst the world’s trusted brands in the quick-service restaurant category.
4. Don’t aspire to be something you are not
People can smell an inauthentic brand from a mile off. It is a brand that tries too hard to please its audience, but your audience will know very quickly that you are being inauthentic and will quickly turn the other way. Bringing an authentic voice to your brand is essential.
Women’s clothing company, Free People, once created an advert featuring an actress who posed as a professional ballet dancer. However, it was obvious to professional dancers that she was not an authentic dancer, which resulted in uproar, thus undermining the brand. The brand fought back with new campaigns, one featuring a genuine, professional dancer and the other featuring professional model, Gisele. The videos generated millions of views, highlighting the brand’s authenticity and resulted in a 28% increase in sales for the brand.
Digital marketing is rapidly evolving and as such it’s essential to adopt the right practices in order to stand out from the crowd and successfully build your brand in the digital stratosphere. Learn from some of the examples of the world’s greatest brands to avoid inertia and employ unique strategies and techniques that will get you noticed.
8 Ways Media can help you with your next digital marketing campaign. To learn more, view our client portfolio or get in touch for a free quotation.
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