7 Internet Marketing Mistakes That Cost a Company Money

Helping business succeed through internet marketing is essential, but with that comes a lot of responsibility to succeed. If there isn’t a marketing plan in place or if it’s ineffective, it’s much harder to make it in the online world. Below are 5 internet mistakes that many people are making and how to avoid them. We also mention other ways to succeed with a business online during our free webinar training!

1. Your phone number isn't easily visible on your web pages

Business Know-How reveals how important it is to have a number visible on your website. If it’s not apparent, it’s hard for customers to contact you. If a customer has a question or would like to purchase something but is experiencing issues having a number, they can reach you with is essential. 

Yes, you want people to serve themselves by making their purchases online without any assistance from you or your staff. But if you don't make it easy for customers to find your phone number and call in their orders, you're losing money! Depending on what you sell and to whom, you could be losing one-third of your sales or more if customers can't easily find your phone number and get a live person on the phone.

2. Not focusing on your growth rate 

Are you focusing on your growth rate? If you’re not Quicksprout suggests how you can do that and why it’s crucial. 

Growing year over year is fine, but it’s not where you should focus your attention. You should ideally be trying to grow week over week, if not day over day.

For example, would you rather have your company grow at a pace of 8% month over month for a year or by 100% over a year?

One hundred percent might seem like the right answer, but considering that 8% growth month over month is compounded, it will result in 151% growth after 12 months.

Growth is good and a good place to put your focus, but what’s even better is having a dedicated full-time employee just focused on growth — it makes a huge difference.

For example, we have a full-time growth hacker at Crazy Egg who runs A/B tests, works on invite flows, and modifies the product so that it helps market itself. This has allowed us to grow at a faster pace.

I wish I did this years ago because the faster a company is growing, the more it is worth. These days, when companies acquire you or investors put money into your business, one of the main things they look at is your growth rate. So, focus on it!

If I did this years ago with Crazy Egg, and we had the resources to do so, I could have made myself an extra 10 to 25 million dollars.

3. Not using email marketing

Inc. reminds business owners how vital it is to use email marketing to their advantage. Maximize the value of visitors so you can target them going forward.

As you spend money on online marketing, you want to do everything in your power to maximize the value of every visitor. This is when email marketing comes into play.

After you get a user in the door, you want to create a means of consistently engaging them on your platform. Consider using Justuno and MailChimp to lead visitors into your email lists and then market to them on an ongoing basis.

Once you've created your lists, you can then send targeted emails to each group. For example, you might have a list for existing customers and a separate list for people who visited your website but did not purchase anything.

4. Not defining a clear identity

Legal Zoom recommends having a clear identity from the start and sticking to it. Without clear identification, it’s hard for customers to know what’s coming next. Decide right from the beginning what your company is all about and do not deviate from that. 

If the White House was suddenly orange, Nike sports heroes declared “Just don't do it,” or Toyota started advertising a new gas-guzzling Prius model, it would be a bit confusing. That's because these examples radically alter those brands' identities. Consistency is key when it comes to what your brand stands for. Once you've established an image for your business, be consistent in how you present it. Use the same message, images, colors, fonts, etc., so your brand identity is consistent and your customers can easily recognize it and know what to expect.

Marketing is a necessary part of a successful business, but doing it right isn't always easy. You will have to experiment to see what works best for your business, but remembering these top marketing mistakes can help you avoid any serious marketing mishaps.

5. Thinking you have to make marketing perfect 

Remember, even though you’d like everything to go smoothly doesn’t mean it will. Sometimes it takes some practice and learning what techniques to use to help your business succeed. And, the good news is that Quicksprout reminds us that everything doesn’t have to be perfect for a company to achieve. 

Early on in my career, I really got into design – so much so that everything had to look perfect before it was launched or released. The issue with this approach is that it causes you to spend too much money testing things, and it also wastes a lot of time.

From product releases to marketing collateral, just get it out there (even if it doesn’t look great). If it works, then go back and tweak it. But there’s no sense wasting time and money on marketing-related collateral if you don’t even know whether it will work.

Just look at the Quick Sprout Analyzer: it’s nowhere near perfect, but the product was a success from a usage and marketing standpoint. Now we are investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve it and build a business around it, but there would have been no point if we didn’t already know that the concept was going to work.

Actually, there were no plans to turn it into a business… It started as a marketing strategy that I used to bring in new visitors. But because it worked, I can now invest more resources into it.

When testing out new marketing campaigns, don’t worry about perfection. Once they work, go back and fix them then.

6. Not knowing your goals 

Do you know what your goals are? Social Media Today reminds business owners to understand their goals and follow through with them. Knowing your goals will help you stay focused and on task. 

You have to know what you want, in order to know what to do.

We often hear things like “I need to be on all the social media channels”, but when we ask “why?” people don’t always have an answer. And when they do, the answer is along the lines of “because everyone is doing it” or “this is what we’ve always done.”   

While you definitely want to know what your competitors are doing, trying to be the “be all end all” won’t help anyone. The most effective use of marketing is to first define your goals, and then choose the specific marketing tactics that will best help you achieve them – not the other way around.

7. Only focusing on big influencers 

Inc. also reminds business owners to think outside the box and not to only go after big influencers. There are many types of people who can help your business grow, so think beyond the big fish and connect with the smaller fish too. 

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies at your disposal. It's effective because it leverages industry influencers who have built a community of followers who trust them. You can immediately position your brand to benefit from association with that influencer.

The mistake most people make is by engaging influencers based solely on the size of their following. Real success comes from working with influencers who have high levels of engagement. Look at their engagement per post (likes and comments) and read the comments to see what kind of reactions they're getting from their followers.

Influencers typically charge more if they have more followers, so do yourself a favor and make sure they have the engagement levels that are required for success.

Join us during our next free webinar training to learn about which marketing strategies you can learn and apply to help your business excel online. 

Sources: Business Know-How, Inc., Social Media Today, Quicksprout, Legal Zoom