Marketing Advice That Will Keep Your Business off Target

Ah, the Internet: a world of information by “experts” who offer their advice on anything from how to apply makeup to the best practices for winning doughnut-eating contests or how to stage the perfect cat video.

Marketing and search engine optimization professionals usually dish on relevant topics like how to build your brand and optimize your website. Some of their advice is good. Other philosophies, like ignoring search engine optimization, should send you running for the hills.

Read up on the marketing tactics you’re using now and what you should be doing instead.

“Put yourself on every social media site that exists.”

This sounds like a logical idea, right? The more sites your business is on, the more search engines can scope you out and put you on results. But your social media presence also has to make sense. You wouldn’t put your law firm on Houzz.

Rather than spreading yourself thin on every site available, focus on those that are relevant to your industry. Where are your potential clients? In marketing, strategy trumps volume, much like quality over quantity.

“You really don’t need to be on social media.”

Lies, lies and more lies.

Businesses sometimes think their clients won’t be using social media, so why bother? You may know some of your customers don’t use social media. But that doesn’t mean none of them do.

Say they have personal Facebook pages. If you’re connected with them and you post content, they’ll see it. If it’s interesting enough, they’ll share it with their friends. That’s more reach you’ll get than if you didn’t engage in social media. Also, it’s always beneficial to use a widespread platform to market your business.

“For more exposure on social media, add as many hashtags as you can.”

Hashtags serve as a way to disperse your content easily. However, crossing the line for a reasonable number of hashtags can make you look less like a business and more like an overzealous mom who’s using her newly created Twitter account on the first day.

Don’t get crazy with the hashtags. Try using one or two hashtags per post.

Getting active on social media, pushing out relative content and being mindful of SEO gives your business greater presence on the web.

“SEO is dead. There’s no point in bothering with it.”

As time progresses, meanings evolve. SEO is one of them.

SEO used to be packing websites with low-quality content to rank highly in search engine results. If you try that today, you’ll punch yourself in the face.

Now SEO focuses on the value of your website’s content. By creating content that customers actually want to read, using relevant keywords and linking back to reputable websites, you’ll make stronger connections with customers and become a leader for knowledge in your industry.

“Blogging is the most important online strategy.”

Some people think blogging means dumping as much relevant writing and content into your site as possible. That practice results in less-engaged readers and fewer customers overall.

If the content isn’t valuable or important to your brand, don’t waste your time. Vomiting content all over your blog page may get more web traffic, but users will most likely fail to convert.

“Mobile-optimized websites are expensive and unnecessary.”

Have you ever tried to visit a company’s website on your phone or tablet only to find that the site was not responsive or mobile-ready? Like an awkward conversation, it makes you want to casually navigate away.

When it comes to businesses making their websites responsive, it’s do or die. People now spend more time on their mobile devices than desktop computers. According to Smart Insights, in 2010, adults spent a little less than a third of an hour per day on mobile screens and 2.2 hours on their desktops. In 2015, adults spent 2.8 hours per day on their mobile screens compared to their desktop screens, raking in only 2.4 hours.

More time on mobile means a higher chance that people will view your site from their handheld device. When they do, make sure it works for them.

Bosomworth, Danyl. (2015, July 22). Statistics on Mobile Usage and adoption to inform your mobile marketing strategy [Text]. Retrieved from http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/.