INTRODUCTION
Table of Contents
Have you noticed that using online marketing is no longer optional for most businesses. whether they are offline or online focused, local or global in their scope of operations? This has never been more true than it is right now in 2016!
A majority of shoppers today are quite savy, they will seek out information and look at reviews online before they make any purchase. It is so available and easy, it has become routine.
In that light. they expect that the businesses they want to frequent will maintain an online presence, and in this day and age they will probably seek out alternatives if they don’t find what they expect.
Whether you sell your own products or services, or you sell others’ as an affiliate, you have to pay attention to what is effective in the market to reach your viewers and provide them with information that is useful in providing solutions for their problems or needs.
So with the start of the new year, after all the celebrations are over, and your focus returns to the business at hand, YOUR business, let’s take a look at five online marketing mistakes killing your business that you MUST avoid in 2016 if you want your business to survive and thrive.
MAJOR MISTAKES AND HOW TO FIX
Mistake #1: Remaining ‘Mobile-Unfriendly’
As of 2015, more internet users access the internet and their favorite websites using mobile devices than using desktop or laptop computers.
Pew Research has a post that they update regularly that details the changes in our internet use habits via mobile here that is quite interesting and backs this finding up:
===> MOBILE AND INTERNET USE <====
This sea change has major ramifications for your business and marketing program…
You simply can no longer afford to ignore mobile marketing as a way of getting the word out about your business. Mobile users also spend more time online than people who use computers. They will more likely than not WANT to access your service/product using a mobile device!
Mobile advertising is a concern in this current state of affiars, and thankfully it is still a bargain compared to other options out there, and as we have seen, the reach can be significant. You can use several different tactics, but the important thing is to plan for one/several and take action!
For your supporting web site, this means you need to check to make sure it is accessible and friendly to mobile users. If you have not migrated or added plugins for adding a mobile-adaptive option to you site, you need to fix this immediately.
What I mean by this is that when your site is viewed in ANY device it will automatically adapt to the device. This means that any user, using any device, will have presented an easy-to-use version of your site.
Using such plugins or switching to a mobile friendly theme your site will appear properly on their screens and any necessary changes in formatting will happen automatically so it appears in the best manner for the viewer.
In the old days, not so long ago, it was common for websites to have a separate mobile site, generally indicated by the letter “M” before the site name. That has changed, and ALL sites need to have this capability, or risk lower results when prospects do searches.
This is just one way to address mobile considerations. You likely should actively set up a lead capture capability – remember the swing towards mobile use for surfing and searches, and you can use mobile numbers you collect in your marketing campaigns.
Why?
Here is just one example: “Text messages are still inexpensive to send, and they tend to have a far higher open rate (close to 99%) than traditional emails.” Yes, you read that right. SMS’ (short message service) can be a GREAT way for your to engage with your local customers, offer them specials, and get them to visit your business.
Mistake #2: Your “My Business” Page Remains Unclaimed
Did you know that ‘Google My Business’ has replaced ‘Google Local?’ If you haven’t logged in or claimed your page already, you are making a BIG mistake.
This is easily fixed, you can correct this by logging in to your Google+ account, or by creating one for your business if you don’t have one, and then claim it.
Here is a tutorial to help you if you need it:
===> CLAIM YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS SITE <===
This is not the end of the task however. Once you have claimed your page, you should take a few minutes to add in a profile picture, a short description of who you are/your business, and add in a link to your website.
If you are a local business, it would be a good idea to include further basic information about who you are and what you offer…i.e. your menu, the prices, your hours of operation, etc.
While you are there, also check to make sure that your address and phone number are accurate, and since you are going through all this effort, add in important keywords on the site as possible, thereby reaping the SEO benefits.
When you claim your page and do the bit of work mentioned above, you help local customers find you online…and the local Google search ranking boost you get will help as well.
HINT: You should also make a little time to claim your page on other online review sites such as Yelp and Angie’s List. Check to see if there are popular local directories that are in use as well – you likely can do the same on such sites.
Overall, you are taking action to make sure that your presence is noticable and accurate for these various mediums. This cannot help but increase the positive presence you have online or your customers/potential customers.
Mistake #3: You Do Not Respond To Negative Reviews
Since we are discussing mistakes to avoid and online review sites we need to edit/check above, it provides a natural segway to the third mistake on our list…
Did you know that sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Google My Business, and others, offer an easy way for consumers to leave reviews of local businesses?
And leave them they do…
Why should you care? Here’s why: Recent studies show that an ever larger percentage of consumers – currently it stands at upwards of 80% — will read online reviews prior to making a purchase.
Of course we all love to get positive reviews, and these we can respond to…But what about the negative comments? It is HOW you respond to any negative ones that can really set your business apart from the competition.
If you do NOT track and take action to make every negative review a positive, to show customers that you DO care about them, you are making a HUGE mistake.
So how do we do this?
Here’s how: Start by claiming your page(s) on such review sites. Then you must monitor those pages and respond quickly to all reviews, good and bad. If they are bad, follow up and make your corrective action turn that negative into a positive.
You can certainly delegate responsibility for trackig to a third party, even the handling of responses possibly if you are too busy. If you do this, make sure your choice is someone who knows how to respond to negative reviews properly, You do not want to sound defensive or angry to the reviewer, you want to fix their problem.
You must remember that other customers will be able to see your response, this is not some verbal thing that disappears when the moment passes. No, this is something that will be there, forever maybe.
It is not all bad though…Because this is free marketing concept, and designed as an added customer service, you can easily make the most of it. The keys are: Be courteous always, genuinely grateful for the feedback provided, and of course you have to address whatever issues that may have been raised in a timely and respectful manner.
If you are interested in learning more, have a look here:
===> REPUTATION MANAGEMENT <===
Mistake #4: You Do Not Engage With Customers Nor Do You Promote Your Business on Social Media
If you thought that not responding to any negative reviews is important and a mistake, this is yet one more mistake that is a HUGE one. Today people interact on a regular basis using the various social mediums.
It is equally vital therefore, for your business health and wealth, to maintain an active social media presence and engage with your customers on these platforms. You can instantly respond to anything negative, you can build rapport with current and new clients, and do marketing using this organic source of traffic.
Yet, despite statistics pointing to the overwhelming popularity of the varous social media platforms, there are a surprising number of companies that simply are not using them to the business’s best advantage.
Certainly with the increasing number of platforms out there, likely you cannot keep up with them all. So yes, you don’t need to be on every social media site…But picking the right ones to focus on and be active in is essential.
It is a fact that Facebook is still the largest social media site and it is a super platform for businesses who want to market directly to consumers. You should have a presence there.
If your business involves selling to other businesses, marketing, through LinkedIn is essential, it is the gold standard. This platform is considerably smaller than Facebook, yet it is extremely effective and deserving of its top level ranking…You are targeting other businesses, not everyman…
For businesses who sell inspirational products, ones that lend themselves well to photography or similar would be remiss if they ignored the benefits of setting up a Pinterest account. there are lots of people use this medium regularly, and it offers a great way to get your name and products in front of people that are buyers…
OK if all this seems like too much of an effort, I suggest that you minimally monitor some of your competitors on social media, see what they are posting, and if they are successful, emulate their efforts as possible.
I also have posted some articles here on the site that may be helpful for you to read/review, here is one:
===> SOCIAL MEDIA <===
A good way to attack this would be sharing a mix of original content you create and of curated content that your potential or current clients would have an interest in. You can find content by following relevant publications and pages for your business and share such posts.
Mistake #5: You Are Still Not Using Paid Advertising
Although there are so many ways nowadays to market your business online for free, it doesn’t mean you should ignore paid advertising.
Because of the many options on the paid side of online marketing, it can be quite confusing, and may business owners choose to ignore this potential growth opportunity for their business.
As opposed to what you might think, online advertising does not have to be expensive…As a matter of fact, it tends to be relatively inexpensive in lots of cases, and it is flexible – Most offer options allowing you to budget for ads that won’t break the budget.
The first of many options you may want to consider is ‘pay-per-click’ (PPC) advertising . This is offered on the search engines like Google and Bing.
In these instances, you bid on selected keywords. With Google AdWords, you have some tools to help: Their Keyword Finder can find potential keywords that are effective, and will give you an ideas what such keywords will cost per click.
When your have outbid your competitor as far as what you are willing to pay, the ads appear, and you will be billed – the bid you make is based on your analyzing a combination of the keyword’s popularity and your chosen website’s authority.
Chosen ads appear either at the top of a list of search results or on the right margin of the page.
There is more…Social media advertising can be an excellent and affordable choice for paid ads. The cost for these is low, and the payback can be considerable. For instance Facebook offers options that will allow you to attract new visitors to your Facebook page or website.
In addition, you can choose to boost an individual post you may make so it displays to your followers and their friends…Or you may choose to target selected members using demographics that you select so the audience is targeted and your results are better.
Facebook is a good choice because it allows a daily budget to be set, and that can be as low as one dollar. They will provide regular updates via email, and this makes it very easy to track your results.
If you want to drill own even more, you can also choose to use customer psychographics – by this we are taking about things like member interests, their hobbies, perhaps any political affiliations, and many more indicators – when you select your ad campaigns…This results in even more targeted viewers of your ads.
The other social media sites such as Twitter offer similar options, so as you can see, you have lots of choices. Not to get involved right now if you are still not is a mistake. The competition is involved, you can believe that.
I have a useful article here that may provide more information you can use as well if need, please feel free to check it out:
===> How to Use PPC <===
and here…
===> How to Use PPC Section 2 <===
CONCLUSION
Now that we have covered these 5 online mistakes that are killing your business in 2016, it is time that you take action.
When you do, you will see impact of your action within a short period of time. Increased leads and business, and profits will result.
Best of luck to all in this new year! Let’s get busy! Push that “action” button NOW and get busy!
Kind Regards,
Very interesting article that gives a lot of information on things that might be holding back my business that I didn’t even think about! I like how you end the article with telling the reader to take a plan of action. Most of the time I can look at these mistakes and say “Yeah that makes sense” but it takes way more effort to actually do something!
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the stop by and also for taking the time to comment. I think that many people just are so busy they do not take some time to step back and look at their online efforts to see what really is adversely affecting their business.
Taking action is the most important thing. It does little good to know that something is broken if you don’t take action to fix it! The 5 online mistakes I mention can really kill a business or minimally keep them from achieving the sales or success they should be having.
Cheers!
Dave : )
Wow that was some great information. Some the things like using social media to promote the business are those things that we have to apply, but I didn’t even think of trying to make my site mobile friendly or use paid advertising. Thank you for the suggestions and keep up the good work!
Thanks for stopping by JP!
The 5 mistakes I mention that are killing business for the owners can apply across the board to online and offline efforts are not that difficult to address…I think people a lot of times get caught up in running other aspects of their business and forget about these.
These mistakes are some of the most common ones from what I have read and experienced with clients, and also is the reason I decided to focus on them for the article. I plays with adding more, but decided that if I could get business owners to look at these minimally, it would have the most positive affect on their operation.
Cheers and stay tuned for the next installment of things to address regarding improving your online or offline business. Please stop by again soon!
Dave : )
Thanks for a well written post. The information was very useful.
I would like to know if I would benefit from a “Google My business” page as I live in Spain but the market for my affiliate links is the UK, USA and other English speaking countries.
I hope you can advise me on this. Thanks.
Colin
Thanks Colin for your positive comment. You are running a business even as an affiliate marketer, so depending on where you base, certainly having a Google My Business page could be useful. It could very well be that you will want to branch out from affiliate marketing into your own products, eBooks, etc.
I would use it for building your brand. We are standing up (is up in limited edition) a hybrid business for selling online offline products (physical products). Our situation is similar. We are selling products fron several countries, but our operations are located in Thailand, Dubai, and Munich…
Certainly I would consider tapping into Google My Business and in the business description you can explain exactly what you are doing and where (plus add in yuor web site, etc.). This coould lead to better rankings with Google and more business in other areas…
Cheers!
Dave : )
Dave,
I definitively needed this. I’ve started building a business online since 2015 and there are still a lot to learn and experiment with – these tips certainly comes in handy on what to avoid and start doing. It can be overwhelming though so I opt to move one step at a time and right now I am focusing on offering great value and building a community.
Did you do these drawings yourself? They looks fantastic (I think they’ll look better a wee smaller).
Hi Anh!
Thanks much for stopping by and taking the time to drop a comment! Yes the whole online marketing is a quite complex business model, much more than it appears to the site visitor…They have no idea how much work has gone into keyword research, copywriting, setting up your page, adding in pictures etc. and the SEO effort to get their attention in the first place!’
Lead magnets is yet another sliver of knowledge we need to learn. It is not as simple as putting together a puzzle however, creativity and artistry come into play in addition to preparing and offering a real product that has real value for the potential subscriber…Something they would pay for, and then take care of all the rest of the tasks as mentioned above…
The whole idea for me on this site is to offer everything needed to aspiring online marketers, but do it a bit at a time. I agree with your approach because it can be too overwhelming otherwise and you risk frustration and opting out completely. I have done the same as I learned, and now with a it of time under my belt, feel much more comfortable with the whole process…
On the graphics in the post, these are not my own, rather they are a part of a graphics kit I bought a while back (I have several that I have secured, and these are used for my blogs, my videos, and even some marketing banners, etc. that I create…
Cheers!
Dave : ).
These are all really great tips for improving traffic and profits for 2016. I really agree with your advice to become mobile friendly in 2016. I switched my main website over last year because I didn’t want to miss out on the extra traffic that a mobile friendly site would give me.
Hi Wendy,
If there was only one thing that I could recommend for business owners it would be this. Without this corrective action, you are cutting yourself off from over half the potential market that is out there searching for YOUR niche and products relating to the niche.
Affiliate marketers often forget that they are in business. Having the same measure in place that every business needs is important. You may operate from yuor home, a grage, or a coffee shop, but you are a business.
Thanks for stopping by and please stop by again, your input is valued!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Dave,
I am still working on a Google My Business page for my local business. After reading your article my next step would be going for PPC. This is something that I have not tried before. With your links to training, I will look at them and see if this is something I can afford for my business.
Your five things are a great list for any online business to follow and get working.
John
Hi John,
I would really step carefull into that world, and yes training and gathering of information is a wise move prior to spending any sizeable amount of money would be smart too. The success path can be cut somewhat if you have a competitor already having success with their program, because you can emulate it and save a lot of testing time.
The stop by today is appreciated and also your feedback was useful for my edification and for other visitors as well I think. Please feel free to pop through anytime, I would love to hear about your experiences with PPC or other aspects of the article.
Cheers!
Dave : )
Hi Dave,
This article has some really great tips and useful information.
I am about to set up my business account on google. I have been working on social media for quite a while now and am finally seeing where it is taking off and I am getting more of a following.
What platforms would you recommend putting paid ads up on?
Vivia
Hi Vivia,
Thanks for stopping by and adding in your feedback, it really helps all of us when we have different perspectives for a subject like this….
It sounds like you are heading in the right direction on a number of fronts and that is really good, you are ahead of a majority of business owners!
I would recommend starting out with Bing/Yahoo and FB, These two offer the best value for the money it costs to do PPC I think to start with…
If you need some detailed guidance on how to set this up, I have some free training (3 tutorials) that may help you out. It can be found here:
1. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/davesw/blog/why-us…
2. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/davesw/blog/paid-t…
3. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/bing-yaho…
Also, in associated and good to know information on the sales funnels that you will feed your prospects to from the CTA in your PPC banners can be found at this 4 part series of tutorials at:
1. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/davesw/blog/creati…
2.https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/davesw/blog/creati…
3.https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/davesw/blog/creati…
4.https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/davesw/blog/creati…
I hope all of this helps you out, let me know if I can be of further assistance!
Cheers!
Dave : )
This is an excellent post, I learned a great deal from it.
I am not in a position to be paying for Adwords yet but I hope to be soon. I went over to the ‘claim your google business site’ and clicked on a link that pertained to me but that was the end. I thought it’d lead me someplace else but it didn’t.
I did make sure my site is mobile friendly, and you’re so right about it being incredibly important.
Do you plan on posting more us newbie affiliate marketers?
Thanks for the great tips!
Hi M8!
Thanks for your positive comments, I do appreciate them. It is important to me that people let me know how they feel, good or bad, so I can continuously improve what I offer here for them,,,
PPC is something that you can ease into, no need to spend a lot of money to get started. Indeed I would say that it is better to start small and make sure what you have and offer is working, THEN scale up…
On the Google My Business point I cover, that place you ended up at is yours. Kind of like a yellow Pages of the old ages (lol) this is where you can claim your bit of real estate and add in your business details…
You also prevent bad information or no information from being there for others to see. The way people do their research prior to buying has changed. Now even for offline store purchases, most of the time they have done some research online, looking for reviews,positive or negative comments, and web pages of vendors/sellers…
Regarding your last question on whether I plan on putting more information out here on the site that will help people…Yes! This is the whole point of the site, it is a main focus for me. I will be adding to the site as often as possible, and based on feedback such as yours, will cover more and more subjects we all can use!
Cheers and please fo stop by here again, as often as you like!
Dave : )
Hello there David.
Thank you for the site you have made regarding the “5 online mistakes killing your business in 2016”.
I own a business myself online so reading up on this has definitely aided me in making sure I do things correctly to succeed.
Any other small tips you have too success?
Thanks, Dan.
Hi Dan,
This site is intended to help all of us small business owners…I will continue to look for interesting subjects that can help us operate more efficiently and effectively…Online is somwething we all have to deal with nowadays, and too often business owners are making mistakes without even realizing it…I hope this helps them.,..
If you have any subject you would like covered here. just drop me a line to dave@davesweney.com or one of the other emails I have listed here. More tips are coming…Notice I also have a monthly magazine especially for small business owners available free if you’d like. Just sign up here: http://davesweney.com/clicks-magazine-subscribe-pa… ….
This magazine procides lots of tips monthly that you may be able to use….and of course if you look around this site there are some good free tools and etc. that yoyu may be able to use too. That can be found here: http://davesweney.com/tag/tools …There are more such posts as well….
Cheers and have a great day!
Wow! That was a lot of information to take in, but so interesting to read. You covered everything about killing your business, but I was wondering if this also pertains to blog websites like ours? Are there similar things that could be killing our business as well? While reading this article I realized how much of it was right on. I actually saw myself as the consumer and found that most of what you said are things that deter me from buying from certain companies. Good job for reaching out with all that good
Hi Kristina,
I think online marketing and the associated blogs we use are indeed a business. You likely are pushing sales as an affiliate and you certainly have a business location etc. The same concepts apply then (this is true for me and my online businesses as well) I would think…
When I start looking at the work and deliverables for this site it does help me make changes that improve the customer experience which is so important…I am adding a lot of new information over the year so I hope that you will stop by from time to time and provide valuable feedback!
Online mistakes are easy to correct if you know what they are…The ones I mention here (5) are likely the tip of the iceberg…I would like to hear from other readers what additional tips regarding online mistakes that we can address…
Cheers!
Dave
Businesses are making a huge mistake if they don’t have any online presence at all! And even when they do have some sort of presence, there’s always opportunity for improvement. I see a lot of sites that aren’t mobile-friendly and that will certainly hurt rankings for those that don’t fix it. This is a great list for businesses to take action on if they haven’t already.
Hi Mathew,
I could not agree with you more…I am doing a series of posts (coming) on the importance of social media and what each platform entails in more detail to get them started. Note that affiliate marketing is a business, and the same points apply to this kind of a business as with others.
The same 5 mistakes online that bricks and mortar businesses are making that is kiijng their potential in 2016 I see on many affiliate marketing sites (i.e. blogs, articles, even sales pages etc.). This is why I thought such a post would be helpful for this site.
Thanks for stopping by and adding your input. I have added a rather long post on 10 tips to increase affiliate marketing earnings that may be of use to you as well if you are interested. It can be found here: http://davesweney.com/10-ways-to-turbo-charge-your… …
Cheers!
Dave : )
I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site.
It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much
more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme?
Fantastic work!
Hi Linnie, Thanks and be sure to read through the content while here. There is a lot of information that will help you make more money online and plenty of ideas that you can use…Cheers! Dave : )