Over the years, I’ve seen quite a few massive Internet marketing mistakes that kill a campaign before it begins. They’re as common with cash rich corporations as they are with bootstrap small businesses. Stupidity knows no boundaries when it comes to wasting money on a good idea executed poorly.
While it might come as a surprise to many, I’ve been at the heart of these mistakes myself. At least two of them, I wish I had just lit a pile of cash on fire and moved on instead. At least I would have had more time to think about a new idea.
Don’t Make These 5 Internet Marketing Mistakes
Want to build a business that creates cash flow, grows in value, and could one day be sold? Read carefully. These are the marketing mistakes that you should absolutely avoid!
- Not Investing in Content: So far, I’ve had two businesses that have been acquisition targets. It sounds really cool at first, until you find out that even the bankers got the valuation wrong. Something I’ve known and preached for years is that great content adds value (educates, edifies, entertains). One big thing holding back those valuations? I was selling a dream or human capital. From a buyer’s perspective, those can be pretty risky. However, content that adds value drives eyeballs… and repeat visits too. Now that is something that you can use to print money!
- Allowing Your Site to Load at Average Speeds: If you have ever worked with me, then you know that I’m obsessed with making your site faster. It’s typically the first thing I bring up with a marketing audit, and the first thing that I tackle as well. There’s a reason why I harp on site speed so much.
- It drives me crazy using a site that takes forever to load.
- Data shows that I’m not the only one.
- Google loves speed.
- Ignoring Data or Obsessing Over Vanity Metrics: Every single time that I put a customer on automated reporting, I regret it. Why? Because if SEMRush or Google Analytics sends a report, the customer is going to see what they want to see instead of reading and interpreting the actual data. The same thing happens in marketing agencies, big corporations, and small businesses that do it on their own. Data doesn’t lie, and it’s trying to tell you a story. Find out what matters to your goals, and then dig into the data to find out what’s working, what’s failing, and what could be improved.
- Over Designing or Over Engineering: Sometimes you just need to launch it and see what happens. When you “over” something, it’s bound to break, fail, suck enough to call it a failure, or never even get off the ground. Here’s where you need to dig in deep and find some guts. If it’s a good idea, you need to just make it happen. Get your site live so that people can find your business, start running ads, launch a new product. Just get something published. Get. It. Done. Then go back and refine.
- Stop Listening to People That Haven’t Actually Done It: “My sister’s cousin does social media for his high school band, and he says this won’t work, so let’s do something else.” Oh really? There are a lot of people selling Internet marketing courses and services that have never actually had success doing the work. Let that sink in for a second. I’m not saying you should be skeptical of the the tool/skill itself (Internet marketing), but make sure you challenge and think for yourself. Every town, niche, association, and LinkedIn group has a guru that has never actually made money. Assuming that’s what you want your digital marketing to accomplish, I’d tune those people out.
Thanks for reading! Let me know about some of the mistakes that come to your mind or share this with a friend!
