INQUISITR.COM / Science & Tech

Online Marketing: Mistakes Marketers Make, What Customers Ignore, And How To Fix It

By Jinger Jarrett
Published on: 06:18 PST, Mar 28, 2016

One of the most neglected tasks in any business is online marketing. Businesses don’t understand how to do it or why it is so important. For those who want to grow their businesses, even in a down economy, an effective marketing plan allows businesses to acquire new customers, get new business from old customers, and increase profits with less effort.

Media Post reported that many customers ignore traditional online marketing. The problem is that many businesses approach online marketing the same way they approach offline marketing: offer discounts, share product details, and make sales pitches. Customers who shop online are much more savvy, and they are looking for more than just the standard product information.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, online marketing is essential for small businesses that want to grow. Many small businesses, particularly those that operate offline, think they don’t need online marketing in order to succeed. The problem is that many customers are already online. When they are looking for local businesses, the place they go to find them is Google. A business that isn’t listed in Google now has very little chance of being found.

The key to connecting with customers online is to focus on content marketing. The goal is to teach customers something they want to learn but don’t know. Although the idea of not selling may seem strange and turn marketing on its head, content marketing is actually more effective online. Instead of marketing products or services, marketers are marketing content instead, and they are educating their audiences.

Most customers who come online are bombarded with around 3,000 online marketing messages a day. They’re already overwhelmed with marketing messages. They don’t want anymore. By offering customers something different, it makes it easier to stand out and get customers’ attention.

It also allows the marketer to do something else that is even more important: build trust with customers. Education also builds relationships with customers and allows the marketer to focus on what their audiences want to know. Then marketers can craft their message to suit audience needs.

Business 2 Community reported that there were six mistakes that marketers often make in online marketing that can be avoided. The most important mistake that marketers make is to not put the customer first and design an online experience that focuses on customers’ needs. Since it’s so easy to receive complaints because of social media, marketers have a better chance at recommendations and getting new customers when they please previous customers because of recommendations.

Avoiding social media marketing automation can cause plenty of problems too. It’s difficult to keep up when a business is marketing on several different social media marketing channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. When customers comment, they want a response, and automation tools can take care of posting content. Comprehensive tools like Hootsuite allow online marketers to monitor their channels from one convenient dashboard and answer questions and comments as quickly as possible.

Forget about long blog posts too. Customers want to consume online marketing content as quickly as possible and get the answers they want. Instead of writing one long 5,000-word blog post, which is the equivalent of a short report, consider cutting the post into three 1,500 word posts. By offering different pieces of content, it allows marketers to test different online marketing tactics to find out what audiences want. In the long run, this saves a lot of effort in building an online marketing plan because audiences get what they want and marketers meet customer needs.

[Photo by Pixabay]

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