In a recent post, we shared questions to ask to determine if your digital marketing is working or not. If you’ve had trouble answering those questions or you’re dissatisfied with the answers you came up with, there are a number of potential factors that could be at play.

The following isn’t a comprehensive list but rather a quick look at the six most likely suspects behind ineffective digital marketing, based on mistakes we’ve seen from Joplin businesses and advertisers.

1. Spray and Pray Tactics

If you’re using multiple digital channels at once—like online banner ads, Facebook Ads, PPC, and more—for the sake of showing up and trying to reach as many people as possible, you might be guilty of “spraying and praying.” You’re likely throwing dollars at a number of channels you don’t even need (or you’re not sure you need), spreading yourself too thin, or not taking the time to truly make the most of any particular outlet. Marketing is an investment back into your business, and conducting your digital campaigns this way is a waste of resources.

2. Weak Creative

Even if you do everything else right, getting your creative wrong means you still aren’t going to see results from your digital marketing. There are several ways to end up with weak creative. You can insult, anger, or frustrate your audience in a way that mars your brand perception. You can be confusing, muddling your message so that the audience doesn’t even know what you’re trying to say. Or you can be inconsistent, which can mean your ad doesn’t end up being associated with your company. One final creative mistake to avoid: Forgetting that people buy promises, not products or services.

3. Missing CTA

A clear and compelling CTA should influence and inspire your audience to do something. For instance, if you’re promoting a new product, tell your audience what to do or where to go next. If you’re running a contest, share where and how to enter. Not all ads are intended to drive a specific action (e.g., “buy tickets now”), but even branding and awareness ads should give your customers a next step, like learn more by visiting your website.

4. Lack of Targeting

Your target audience is the lifeblood of your business. They’re the most qualified consumers for your products or solutions, and their interests, needs, and behaviors should influence every marketing decision you make, including those involved with your digital marketing. Personalization goes a long way in breaking through the clutter and forming meaningful connections. (Remember mistake #1, spraying and praying?) If you aren’t targeting your audience and serving up specific offers based on their interests and pain points, you can’t possibly appeal to them.

5. Vague Strategy

It should go without saying that your marketing always needs a plan. Before you begin any digital campaign, you need to think through which channels you’re going to use, how and when you’re going to use them, and (most importantly) what your objectives are for each. Does your target audience research support these decisions? Do your overall marketing goals? What are you currently doing with radio advertising, print, and other components of your marketing and branding? Does your digital marketing complement all of that to boost your ROI, or is it treated separately? Another key part of having a strategy: You need to be able to define a budget and stick to it.

6. Failure to Track Results

Tracking your digital campaign performance helps with attribution, letting you see how each digital channel contributed to the ultimate success or failure of a campaign. In other words, if you don’t track your digital marketing results, you won’t know two things: (1) what worked, so you can repeat it and improve upon it in the future; and (2) what didn’t work, so you can avoid similar mistakes and learn from it. What’s more, real-time tracking can empower you to identify problems that can be fixed mid-campaign and let you maximize your results.

Leverage Effective Digital Marketing

Now you know what not to do with your digital marketing, and you have questions set aside to make sure you stay on track. If you’re still not sure where to begin to make your next digital campaign a success, the digital experts at Zimmer Radio Inc. can help you through the process—from clearly understanding your audience and the appropriate digital channels to reach them, to implementing best practices and using the best tools to make your creative come to life and your digital campaign truly shine. Contact us to get started.