4 Things You Don’t Want to Hear About Your Marketing
4 Things You Don’t Want to Hear About Your Marketing
I’m willing to bet there are plenty of things you don’t want to hear about your business. Like these, for instance:
“We’re out of money.”
“Our customers are leaving us for the competition.”
“The industry is dying.”
… You get the picture here.
But I’m also willing to bet you don’t have any phrases you want to avoid with marketing. If that’s the case, this blog post is for you.
With that in mind, I highly recommend you add these four phrases to your list of things you don’t want to hear about your marketing. When you do, you’ll be one step closer to marketing success (aka more customers and more revenue!).
#1: You’re Not Getting Any Traffic
Getting traffic to your website is one of those basic essential of digital marketing. If you want to succeed, you have to find ways to push traffic to your website.
But if you’ve got a marketing campaign in place and you still can’t drive traffic, that’s a clear sign that something’s off. It could be any of these pitfalls:
- Your SEO efforts are off the mark or nonexistent.
- Your paid ads aren’t optimized or working.
- Your website isn’t being maintained.
- Your niche doesn’t get much traffic
- No one is interested in or searching for your product
If that last one is the case, you’re probably in trouble.
But what about the others? Can you fix those?
In short, yes. But it’s very likely going to take time, patience, and research to get all of these issues fixed. For instance, optimizing your ads can be a tricky project if you’re not familiar with Google or Facebook Ads best practices.
If you want to check out your traffic stats – and potentially start to uncover the holes in your digital marketing efforts, start by checking out your Google Analytics. It will tell you how much traffic you’re getting, where it comes from, and how you’re trending over time.
From here, you can find out how to improve your online presence and grow traffic.
#2: No One Is Reading Your Content
Here’s the thing: It’s possible to get tons of traffic, but still have zero engagement on your site. If no one sticks around to read the content on your site or interact with you, it’s just as bad as the first issue.
If you have this problem, it may be due to a few distinct and fixable issues:
- You’re not sharing the content you create
- You didn’t do any keyword research
- You’re not adding value to your customer
- It’s hard to read or poorly optimized
Some of these fixes are simple. For instance, readability and optimization could be as simple as using an editing service like Grammarly. You can also outsource content creation to a professional who knows SEO and your industry.
But more importantly – how can you tell if no one is reading your content?
That takes a little more digging, although a quick way is to go back into your Analytics and drilling down to the Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels tab.
From here, you’ll need to choose your highest referral source (for content, it’s probably organic search), and then choose the Landing Page option.
On this page, you’ll be able to see a complete breakdown of the different pages on your site, how much traffic they get, and more importantly – how long people stay on them. This is a metric called Average Session Duration.
If it’s low – lasting just a few seconds, it likely means that your content isn’t adding value or getting eyeballs. Work on refreshing it, optimizing it, or use a tool like a heatmap to uncover why people are leaving your site quickly.
#3: Your Budget is Gone/Too Low
What’s a good budget for your marketing? That depends on your business, what you want out of your marketing, and how much time you’re willing to pour into optimization.
That said, one study recommends an average of around 10% of your annual revenue as a basic guideline for consumer services like laundromats or wash-dry-fold operations. B2B operations typically see anywhere from 18% to 28%.
Let’s get one thing straight about this though – you’re not just sinking costs with no return on your investment. And marketing is an investment.
But across the board, it’s seen as a wise move for businesses to make. Depending on the type of marketing you engage in, the average ROI ranges from around $1-$7 per dollar spent in marketing.
So if you aren’t spending enough, or if your budget is gone with little to no success, you may want to reconsider your priorities or consider approaching with a higher budget.
#4: You’re Not Doing It At All
This one may be a no-brainer, but as a business it’s not in your interest to sit out when it comes to marketing – digital or otherwise. I’ve already shared the ROI potential in the section above, so I won’t hammer this home much more.
Simply put, it’s one of the wisest investments you can put in your business, hands-down. If you’re not taking the leap, or are nervous about what it could mean for your business, it’s worth starting a conversation about it. It’s your future, and you need to own it.
Conclusion
Marketing isn’t optional, but it also isn’t easy.
But now, you’re equipped to do a quick assessment of your digital marketing and uncover potential pitfalls that may be preventing growth.
Don’t let these phrases keep you up at night. Invest in your digital marketing, learn how to generate traffic, and build solid content that engages and grows your audience.
When you do it right, you’ll have a digital presence that acts as an asset for years to come – and it’s hard to put a price tag on that.