5 Online Marketing Mistakes to Avoid for Small Businesses

To become a master at digital marketing, what not to do is just as important as what you should do. Here are online marketing mistakes startups should avoid.

At least 69% of American shoppers shop online. How can they find your online business?

Sure, there are a lot of shoppers, but there are also a lot of e-commerce businesses. For your business to succeed, you need to have a great marketing strategy to reach your goals.

Unfortunately, many businesses fall for common online marketing mistakes. Read on to learn what you need to avoid to keep your business from falling into the same trap.

1. Ignoring SEO

Just having a fantastic website is enough to start seeing traffic trickle in, right?

Unfortunately, no matter how much you’ve spent on building the perfect website, if you don’t have an SEO strategy, then you’re not likely to see much traffic.

With billions of websites out there, you need to put the work in to ensure your site starts ranking in Google and that users searching for keywords related to your business find you first.

If you don’t have experience with SEO, consider outsourcing this, as it can be tough to get right, especially when ranking for competitive keywords.

2. Targeting the Wrong Audience

You need to know exactly who your target demographic is to have successful online advertising.

Say you’re an online jewelry store, looking to set up Facebook ads. You may think just targeted everyone who has an interest in jewelry, but you need to be more specific. Marketing with social media is competitive and can be expensive, so make the most of it by being prepared.

Work out the age ranges of your clientele, their interests, yearly income, and narrow your audience down as much as you can. This will get the best results.

Enroll here to start building your own online business today.

3. Having a Subpar Website

Business websites should be easy to navigate, mobile-responsive, fast, and professional. Ideally, you should have online shopping available direct from your site, making the customer experience efficient and smooth.

If you don’t have a website, get started now— just having a business Facebook page isn’t enough.

4. Neglecting Your Competition

You always want to be original and never want to copy your competitors. However, it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on what they’re doing from time to time.

Do they seem to be killing it with their online advertising? Have they set up a special offer that undercuts your prices?

See if you can learn anything from what others in your industry are doing, without sacrificing your own innovation.

5. Not Having a Marketing Plan

It can be easy for a small business to be reactive with marketing and only advertise when sales slow down.

However, all businesses, large or small, need to have a marketing plan. It lets you clearly lay out your goals and vision, set benchmarks, and you lay out all of your steps to reach your sales targets, creating a roadmap.

This should include an online marketing plan as well.

This will keep you focused and on track to success.

Avoid These Online Marketing Mistakes and You Can Thrive

Running a small business can be both challenging and rewarding, but you’ll have the best chance of success if you avoid these common online marketing mistakes.

Take your online marketing seriously from day one and you’ll quickly be on your way to growing as a company and seeing increased sales.

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