Daniel Dulake On Why Your Marketing Isn’t Working
Welcome to the Daniel Dulake blog. Daniel Dulake runs a successful web design agency called Web Digital. In todays blog we talk about marketing. I know a lot of business owners “hate” marketing, but if you want customers / clients – it’s pretty much required. While marketing isn’t exactly rocket science, it’s more than just pretty pictures and strategically placed fonts – it’s how you communicate your value and build relationships with potential buyers. There’s not a single “right” way to go about your marketing, but there are a few things you should definitely avoid. Read on to find out more!
REASONS YOUR MARKETING ISN’T WORKING
1. You don’t have a target audience. Marketing without a target audience is really just putting stuff out into the world and hoping someone will buy it.
FIX THIS: Define your target audience. Figure out what makes them tick. Figure out where they hang out online – What social media platforms are they active on? What communities do they belong to? What blogs do they read? What problems do they have? If you’re just getting started, there’s a handy worksheet to help you define your target audience linked in this post!
2. You don’t have a strategic plan. You can spend hours and hours on “marketing” but if you don’t have a strategic plan, you could be wasting a ton of precious time. Mapping out a strategic plan will not only help you figure out what content you need to create and share, but it will also keep you on track to actually accomplish your goals.
FIX THIS: Think about your client / customer journey – for example, most of my clients find me on social media. Either they come across my Instagram and click through to an opt-in form or they come across a pin that leads to one of my blog posts. From there, most people read a blog post or two and then may opt-in to my email list via a content upgrade or some other free offer. Once people are on my email list, they get a series of emails (depending on how they opted in) and eventually get pitched my paid products / services.
3. You plan but don’t take action. What’s worse than not having a strategic plan?
FIX THIS: Set aside time each week specifically for marketing activities. Put it on your calendar. Find an accountability buddy. Do whatever you need to do to make sure you’re dedicating time to taking ACTION rather than just making to-do lists.
4. You aren’t consistent.For 99.9999% of people, success doesn’t happen overnight. If you’re not showing up consistently to connect with your audience, to build brand awareness, and to promote your products / services – then you’re doing yourself and your business a disservice. Consistency breeds credibility.
FIX THIS: Scheduling + automation are your BFFs. When it comes to social media marketing, I definitely recommend scheduling your posts in advance. Create an editorial calendar and post as frequently as you can be consistent – quality above quantity, always.
5. You aren’t paying attention to your analytics. The only way to really know if you marketing is “working” is to track your results.
FIX THIS: Use the available tools to track your marketing activities – each social media platform or scheduler has it’s own analytics, you should set up google analytics for your website / blog, and your email marketing service probably has it’s own built in analytics as well. And for your analytics to be relevant, you need to establish specific goals.
There you go. Hope you learned something today. Let us know what you think of my tips on the comment section below!
Daniel Dulake is the founder of Web Digital. A digital agency creating experiences that connect, marketing that performs, and branding that inspires. Learn more about Daniel Dulake and explore how we can help you move from now to next. Connect with Daniel Dulake on Crunchbase here. You can also follow Daniel Dulake's Twitter page here.
