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Ten digital marketing devilish sins for a smaller business:
1) Pretending you’re bigger than you are. Have you got aspirations to be big, but you haven’t got the budget or the muscle to pull it off. Not to fret, punching above your weight is possible in digital. However, avoid trying to pretend you’re a big fish in the big pond, as you will soon find yourself out of your comfort zone, and you will make costly mistakes. Fight lean, fight hard, and fight smart, but don’t fight like a bully, it won’t suit you.
2) Big marketing ideas, virtually non-existent budget. You know what we mean by this. You have this great idea. It’s going to be in VR, it’s going to look like ‘Star Wars,’ we’re going to promote it globally, everyone will hear about this, by the way, the budget is £100 or $100. Well, for that budget, you’re going to get nowhere, so don’t overstretch and think beyond what you can possibly do.
3) It’s going to go viral, I just know it. Well, you don’t, because the very definition of something going viral is it outperforms expectations, it goes far and beyond, and that’s hard to plan. Aim for bigger and better but don’t aim for going viral as part of the brief.
4) He’s an expert at everything, or she. Nope, that doesn’t exist. Nobody is an expert at everything and if you expect one person to wear numerous hats, they are bound to disappoint. Find experts in areas you need expertise in.
5) One size fits all. This almost always doesn’t work, there is no one size fits all, unless you are buying socks perhaps. You need to tailor your cloth accordingly. If you are reaching into another market, you need to adapt to that market. Another customer group, adapt. Another product sector, adapt. Don’t try and be the same everywhere because you don’t have time or budget.
6) What counts is my personal opinion. Well, is some ways it does if you are signing the cheques, but if you value your personal opinion over hard facts, data and expert advice, you are not likely to get very far.
7) I don’t understand digital, so I will avoid. That’s a big mistake. Your customers are there, you need to be there as well. You will lose a lot of business if you avoid reaching your customers through digital.
8) My Marketing Manager can do it. Yes, they can, but they can’t do everything, they will need help along the way.
9) My agency can do it. Yes, they can, but how much are they charging you, and how do you measure the value of what you are receiving.
10) I only take free advice. Well, you get what you pay for in this world, so best of luck.