Common Digital Marketing Pitfalls To Avoid

If you make Facebook posts about your business (main business or part-time business), you already do digital marketing.

image: vibewebsolutions.com

Digital marketing is simply using internet based platforms to reach potential customers. And common ways we achieve this are:

1. Email marketing. Sending marketing emails out.
2. Facebook posts and adverts.
3. Twitter posts and adverts.
4. Instagram posts and adverts.
5. LinkedIn posts and adverts.
6. Sponsored or advertorial blog posts.
7. Google adverts that show up on other websites and during google search.

So what are the common pits I see people fall into while doing digital marketing?

1. Buying email addresses. Never ever buy email addresses to send marketing emails to. Not even if you are given the email addresses for free. The reason is not just because it looks wrong but it will make the email providers downgrade your email address (and domain name if you use a custom email address) and very soon all your emails will be directly routed to junk/spam. I have seen it happen to many people and even companies in Nigeria. I know one big company that all their emails go straight to my junk folder -- both their important and marketing emails. The email providers now have a sophisticated system and now severely punishes people who try to game the system.
2. Not asking for permission. For us in Nigeria, this is a less serious issue. Unlike in Canada where you can be arrested for sending marketing email to someone without getting their permission first. Professionally, you need to get people's permission before sending them marketing email. Either they came for your event and gave you their emails or they sent you an email requesting for details of your service or they signed up on your blog/website. The advantage is that you will be reaching a receptive audience -- people already interested in your service. Occasionally there will be people who won't remember they subscribed to your email newsletters or feel your emails are a disturbance, but you've done the proper thing and that matters a lot.
3. Not giving people a way unsubscribe. Facebook has unfriend. Twitter has unfollow. LinkedIn has hide a connection and all their activities. You should always give people a way to opt-out of your marketing emails. Give them a way to unsubscribe. That way they won't keep sending your emails to spam and ruining your credibility as email providers have algorithms that learn (soon they will be automatically routing your emails to spam).
4. Tagging people. This happens a lot on Facebook. Someone makes a post about something he sells and then tags everyone. That is bad publicity. You will generate annoyed people and not customers.
5. Paying for Twitter hype. Ever noticed those tweets that don't make any sense and have a link or hashtag at the end? That is what you get when you pay people to hype your product on Twitter. 

And those are the common mistakes I see people make. You will notice three out of the five are all related to email marketing. It is because it is not centrally managed by any organization unlike Facebook, Twitter and the others, so people naturally misuse it.