#1- Centering Your Focus on Your Company, NOT On Your Potential Customers-
It is all too easy to focus all your advertising on you or your company and not on your potential customers/clients. We all do it, just look at any ad and ask yourself who the ad is really talking about. Is it talking about the prospect or about the company? You must focus ALL your marketing communications on the prospect …period!
This should be the #1 thing to remember when using Facebook/Twitter for business. What would you want to see as a consumer?
#2- Giving consumers the third degree.
If you are trying to interest customers in signing sign up for a newsletter or make a purchase, do not make them jump through hoops or answer a battery of questions. Each question you ask subscribers, beyond name and email address, will cost you 10 to 15 percent of your potential customers.
#3- Putting the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email.
Why is that bad? When a subscriber wants to change their email address, what do they do? If you expect someone to unsubscribe one email address, then go back to your site and resubscribe with another, that’s expecting a lot. The best thing to do is have “Manage your subscription” link that takes them to a page that they can unsubscribe, change their email address, and even change which lists they subscribe to. Then, have an “Quick Unsubscribe” link next to that.
#4- No deals or coupons, what?
I sign up for emails from local restaurants a lot. Sometimes, I’ll get emails that tell me about new menu items, or encourage me to celebrate a holiday at their restaurant, but NO offer! There’s no call to action! Why do I care about Don Pablo’s having Cinco de Mayo if it doesn’t mean I get 10% off or a free Margarita? After two or three of these email ads, usually all pretty and graphical, I unsubscribe. Why would I want someone to just send me ads? If I liked ads, I wouldn’t fast forward through them with Tivo.
#5- Failing to understand the SEO value of viral marketing
Try designing viral pieces around your important keywords, and provide users with easy means to link to your application or site.
#6-Failing to position your organization as a leader.
Being seen as a leader in your community gives you a distinct advantage. Identify a niche where your organization can truthfully label itself the best. If you can’t find a niche, create one. Then let your role as an community leader be a powerful factor in your marketing campaigns. Many groups find that charity work, education awards, grants or scholarships really get the community’s attention.
#7- Making your viewers wait.
Don’t regret paying more for a hostile package that could bring you to people fast. If your website is constantly down, your server is slow, your graphics take two minutes load, you can say goodbye to your potential customers.
#8- Really Bad Navigation And No Sitemap
It doesn’t take a marketing coach to know that the entire point of “search engine optimization” on a site is to get that site crawled by the search engines. If you use images — or worse — Flash or javascript to design your navigation, the search engines will ignore you. (Also, any page that doesn’t have an incoming link won’t be crawled.)
Not having a sitemap is just as bad. Many website owners don’t think they need a sitemap because people don’t use them. It’s not about people! Search engines love sitemaps. They literally crawl all over sitemaps. Even if you have to maintain the sitemap manually, have one and link to it on every page of your site.
#9- Not Knowing your Keywords!
Search engine optimization that fails to optimize with keywords based on research. Without careful keyword research on the keyword phrases your market is actually searching, the keywords you think are important may not produce targeted traffic or conversions.
Many companies providing SEO services make promises about getting your site to rank in top positions in major search engines. They may ask you for a keyword list or provide you with a list of keywords. Often these keywords are not heavily searched or able to target your ideal customer. Ask for help!
#10- No Link Building Campaign
Links are one of the key ways search engines determine how valuable your site is. Your site is like a political campaign, because every link is like a vote. Do presidential candidates sit back in their living rooms just waiting for Election Day? No, they go out and present their platform, give speeches, hold press conferences, put up signs, shake hands, and kiss babies. They do this because they know if they don’t, no one will vote for them. So, what are you doing to get people to “vote” for your website? Yeah, it takes some work, but if you want your site to compete for the top keywords, you need a lot of votes and in the end, it’s worth it. Need help with your internet marketing? Set up an appointment with our new client marketing manager for a complete analysis of your current marketing efforts and ways to make it amazing.
~The biggest key to surviving the Internet marketing jungle is just to do a little more work than anybody else. ~Jennifer Russell -SEO Pittsburgh
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