Why Online Marketing Isn’t Working for You

Most businesses use content marketing as part of their advertising strategy. In fact, some estimates suggest that as many as between 77 and 94 percent of all businesses use content marketing regularly. However, I’m willing to bet that only a small fraction of those companies are getting significant results from their efforts.

You see, although content marketing can undoubtedly be a great way to drive traffic and make sales, most companies are making rookie mistakes that stop them from seeing success. So, if you’re using online marketing and it isn’t helping you as much as you think it could check out these common reasons why it might be failing for you:

You Have No Strategy in Place

You can’t just create content and expect people to flock to your website, blog or store – you have to have a strategy in place. You need to experiment, see what works and what doesn’t and put a plan in place to make things better. Just having a plan in place could make all the difference between content that converts and content that goes largely ignored.

You Haven’t Invested in Your Website

No matter how good your content is if you haven’t spent the same amount of time investing in your website, whether by purchasing your own domain from www.wizzhosting.co.uk, developing an attractive theme, or making your website simple to use, you simply aren’t going to get the kind of results you’d expect. So, as well as investing in content, spend a bit of money improving your website, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Your Content Isn’t Inspiring

Just writing any old content, even if it features all the right keywords to, in theory, drive traffic your way, isn’t good enough. If you want to not only drive more traffic to your website but encourage more people to buy your goods and services, your content needs to be good. It should compel, inspire, inform or entertain your readers so that they’re convinced to make a purchase and more than happy to come back and read some more or sign up to your newsletter.

You Don’t Promote Your Content

If you’re already running a hugely successful business or you’re posting content on one of the planet’s top blogs, you might not have to do much to promote your content, but for everyone else, it is vital. Post links on Twitter and Facebook, write guest posts, send out emails and do anything else you can to spread the word about your latest piece of writing if you want to see spectacular results.

You’re in a Difficult Niche

Sometimes, you might not be doing anything wrong at all. It might just be that you’ve chosen to operate in a difficult niche where the number of people who’d be interested in reading your stuff is limited, or your target audience doesn’t get online much. If this is the case, you’ll have to work a lot harder to break through and get lots of readers, perhaps by combining your niche with a more popular related one, but it is possible, so don’t give up.

You’re Competing Against a Giant

Again, if you’re doing everything right, your content could still fail if you’re forced to go up against a huge competitor. For example, say you were to start producing your own brand of cola. How do you think you’d fare against Coca Cola and their billions? Probably not that well, UNLESS, you can offer something unique. So, if this is a problem you’re facing, don’t be afraid to be quirky or market your product from a  new angle. Maybe you could highlight the superior ethics of your product or the fact that you use organic ingredients. There’s always a market for things like that; it’s just a matter of working out what your USP is and emphasizing it in your content.

You Haven’t Been Marketing Long Enough

Even some of the biggest internet marketers like the owner of https://problogger.com/ weren’t overnight successes. They had to do the work and then wait patiently for the results to roll in. The thing about content marketing is that it takes time. It can take months for your content to get attention, so you need to be patient. If you keep doing all the right things, it will happen eventually, and you will see your bottom line begin to bulge.

Your SEO Knowledge is Poor

If you don’t know how to optimize your content for search engines, no one is going to be able to find it, and that means, no matter how good it is, you won’t see any results from it. So, either learn SEO or hire an expert if you feel that could be where your problem lies.

Kickstart Your Startup With an Amazing Public Event

One of the best ways to give your business a boost at the start of its life is to host a public event. Showing your face (and your product or service) in public is a fantastic way to get some early exposure. Be it attending a trade show, visiting an exhibition or making an appearance at a local mall, make sure you’re using public events to your advantage. To give you some starting ideas here’s some handy advice.

Don’t make the mistake of showing up with nothing

Sure, you might be a startup with limited funds and a cracking idea, but there’s no point showing up to an event just to let people know you exist. It feels like a cry for recognition and more often than not it’ll backfire on you. Make sure you turn up to an event with your product in hand, samples to give out and business cards to distribute. If you turn up with just a great idea and nothing to show for it, then you’ll just be laughed at and made fun of.

Ensure your staff are well-equipped

You need to take some staff with you to help you promote your ideas and product, but you can’t make the mistake of attending without being prepared. Make sure you print out name badges for your staff so they’re easily recognisable and so your visitors can talk to them more comfortably. Ensure they have business cards to hand out and ample knowledge about your product so that they can converse with people and lure them into your business. They should also practice their communication skills if they haven’t already. Public events are fantastic networking opportunities, and it makes sense to speak to as many people as possible.

Prepare contact information

One of the common marketing mistakes people make at events is using placeholder contact information. Make sure your website design is finalised and that it as all of the relevant information about your business on its pages. Don’t neglect the importance of giving a proper contact number or email to the customers.

Produce sample products

Though it might cost a bit of money to produce samples, you need to prepare them so that you have something to hand out to the event attendees. Try to gauge interest on social media before you attend the event so you have a rough estimate of how many you need to produce. If you’re setting up your own public event at a location such as a mall or a busy street, then pick a date that matches a holiday to get the most attention. No one wants to produce samples that won’t be handed out, so it’s always better to have less and efficiently use your budget than produce too many and run out of cash.

Don’t forget to network

As the business owner, you should be the one initiating conversations with people, not waiting for them to come to you. Speak to as many people as possible and try to scout out the competition and other businesses that you could strike deals with. Get to know your surroundings and the industry and you’ll find it becomes far easier to run a business.

Making Media Work For Your Marketing

Isn’t the Internet great?

It’s helped many different businesses reach a lot more people who they never would have a couple of decades ago. As a result, they are able to make more leads and turn those leads into lucrative sales. It’s fair to say that the Internet has helped many companies flourish!

But is your company using the Internet to its full potential? Most businesses are already on social media and have their own website. But if these look bland and boring, there is no way they are going to help you attract any new customers. That’s why you need to vary the types of media that you use on them! Not sure which media will work best for your company? Here are some different types and how you can utilise them.

Video
It is now easier than ever to share videos. You can quickly post them to Facebook and Twitter, and you can also add them to your website layout. However, for your videos to make a big impact, you need to ensure that they are of a high quality. Lots of companies find that it really pays off to hire film companies to create some inspiring footage for them. Alternatively, if you have a very tight budget, you should be able to find some reasonably priced camera equipment if you fancy having a go at making a video yourself.

To brighten up your company website and social media accounts, you should use as many eye-catching photographs as possible. These days, you will find lots of websites that offer free stock images that you can use. However, it’s always best to use photos that you have taken yourself. That way, you can be sure that you hold full copyright and can use them however you want. Remember to add a photo to ever Facebook status or tweet that you publish, as it can help to draw people’s attention to it. A social media update that is just text can be boring and very forgettable.

The Graphic Interchange Format is more commonly referred to as a GIF. This is a moving picture and is most commonly used on social media. More often than not, they show a scene from a TV show or a movie that lasts only a few seconds. Some GIFs feature text, others do not. These are fun additions to your social media posts and can be very effective in place of a standard image. If you don’t have a photograph or video that is suitable for a specific post, I’m sure you will be able to find a GIF that can do the job. As GIFs are moving images, you will find that they attract a lot of attention to a post as they can attract a lot of attention. Not only that, though, but they make a post very shareable.

As you can see, you have lots of media to choose from. Whichever you go with will depend on the specific social media post or website page that you are adding it to!