Regardless of size or industry, nearly every business uses digital marketing to reach new customers and grow their business. This is especially true for home service businesses, which can benefit significantly from lead generation campaigns and other digital marketing efforts. However, there are several common digital marketing pitfalls that many home service businesses make regarding their digital marketing efforts. This blog post will discuss 10 of the most common digital marketing pitfalls and how to avoid them!
Pitfall #1: Not Defining Your Target Audience
One of the most common digital marketing pitfalls that home service businesses fall into is not taking the time to define their target audience.
Recalling a story from Dan Kennedy, a local carpet cleaning company decided to start a direct mail campaign to acquire new customers. After a couple of mailings, the owner took a look at the results. They were not happy about the R.O.I. of the campaign. Speaking with Dan about the problem, Dan asked, “who was getting the mailings?” The owner showed the list to Dan, and they got into one of the company vans and took a drive through the neighborhood.
The neighborhood they drove to was only a few miles from the company headquarters, and it wasn’t the best part of town. The houses were unkempt, with cars being worked on in the yards and driveways. On the porches sat the homeowners, and they didn’t look like the type to sweep the floors, let alone pay someone to come and clean them.
The owner failed to define his target audience and send his promotions to the right neighborhood. As a result, he wasted time and money on a marketing campaign that didn’t produce any results.
Pitfall #2: Not Having a Digital Marketing Strategy
Another common mistake is not having a digital marketing strategy. Many home service businesses invest in digital marketing without taking the time to develop a strategy or plan for how they will use it to grow their business. This is a recipe for disaster!
A well-crafted digital marketing strategy will consider your goals, budget, target audience, and the various channels you will use to reach them. Without this level of planning and forethought, your digital marketing efforts are likely to be haphazard and ineffective.
Let’s take a quick look at 7 different digital marketing strategies.
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization
- PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising
- Email Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Voice SEO
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
Each one is unique and will speak to your target audience in a different way. The goal however should be the same across the board. Generate a lead.
The planning of your campaign should include more than one of those strategies to ensure good coverage of your campaign. SEO and PPC are top-of-funnel market channels that will bring awareness to your company and its services. Most prospects won’t convert the first time they visit your site. A retargeting campaign using social medial marketing will help nurture your lead and move them along the customer journey.
Combining the first three mentioned with any of the additional four strategies will continue to enhance your campaign and bring omnipresence to your brand.
Pitfall #3: Investing in the Wrong Channels
Going back to pitfall #1, defining your target audience and how you reach them is a critical part of effective marketing.
Spending advertising dollars on cable tv channels when your ideal customer consumes media through YouTube is a colossal waste. Another example would be buying Facebook ads when most of your customers use Twitter.
Advertising is kind of like fishing; knowing where the fish gather is half the battle of catching them.
To get an idea where your ideal customers spend most of their time online, a survey of your past clients can give you insights about what they like to watch and the websites they like to visit.
Pitfall #4: Not Measuring Results
Many home service businesses make the mistake of not measuring the results of their digital marketing efforts. This is a huge mistake! It is impossible to tell what is working and what is not without data. As a result, you will likely continue to pour money into ineffective channels and strategies while your results remain flat.
To avoid this pitfall, be sure to set up tracking for all of your campaigns and track key metrics regularly. This will allow you to see what is working and make necessary adjustments to improve your results.
All of the major ad platforms have tracking pixels or tags that can be placed on your website or landing page. These snippets of code record your prospects’ interactions and help you determine where you might lose your prospect along the way.
The code also helps retarget your prospects if they didn’t take the desired action on your site.
Pitfall #5: Failing to Test
Another common mistake is failing to test different aspects of your digital marketing campaigns. A/B campaigns help you determine which version of your ad, email, or landing page is more effective.
Not sure what call to action works best? Test it! Not sure which subject line will get more opens? Test it! Failing to test different elements of your campaigns will leave you guessing and could cost you a lot of money in wasted advertising spend.
Pitfall #6: Relying On Organic Traffic Alone
Organic traffic is the traffic you get from sources other than paid advertising. This includes traffic from search engines, social media, and referrals. While organic traffic is significant, it should not be your only traffic source.
Relying on organic traffic alone is like putting all your eggs in one basket. If Google decides to change its algorithms (which it did extensively in 2021), all the hard work to rank your site gets wiped away.
If you want to learn more about the snaps and slaps of internet marketing, I suggest you pick up a copy of Traffic Secrets by Russel Brunson.
Pitfall #7: Not Prioritizing the Mobile Experience
In 2021, over 60% of all internet traffic was from mobile devices. This number will only continue to grow in the years to come.
With such a large percentage of traffic coming from mobile devices, your website and campaigns must be optimized for mobile. This includes having a responsive design, fast-loading pages, and easy-to-use forms and checkout processes.
Failing to prioritize the mobile experience will result in lost traffic and conversions.
Pitfall #8: Not Incorporating Video
Video is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal for digital marketing. Your company can use videos for everything from ads to social media posts to email marketing campaigns.
Behind Google, YouTube is the second most visited site in the world. There isn’t a topic on the planet that YouTube doesn’t’ cover. At the time of the writing, it has the best R.O.I. when it comes to paid advertising.
Another great place to incorporate your video marketing is in your email campaigns. Including video in the subject line increases open rates by 6%. More opens equal more opportunities for your customer to learn more about you and your offers.
If you are curious to learn more about how adding video to your emails can increase customer engagement check out Glimpse Video free for 14 days.
Pitfall #9: Not having a clear call to action
A strong call to action is the third rule in Dan Kennedy’s ten rules within the Magnetic Marketing System.
Your call to action (C.T.A.) is what you want your prospect to do next. It could be clicking on a link, filling out a form, or making a purchase.
The C.T.A. needs to be straightforward to understand whatever the case may be. You’ll likely see many people bouncing from your site without taking any desired action if it isn’t.
To avoid this, make sure your C.T.A. is short, sweet, and to the point. Tell your prospects exactly what you want them to do and make it easy to take that action.
Click this link to learn more about Dan’s Magnetic Marketing system and receive a physical newsletter highlighting the best practices and real-world examples of direct response marketing.
Pitfall #10: You are trying to market like you have the budget of Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola spends an estimated $23 million a day on marketing. They have teams of people working around the clock to create and execute their campaigns.
The vast majority of businesses will never have this kind of budget, and that’s okay! You don’t need a big budget to be successful with digital marketing.
There are many low-cost or even free tools that your company can use to market your business online effectively. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all free to use. For email marketing, many great email marketing platforms, like Get Response and Constant Contact, offer free plans for small businesses.
The important thing is to focus on creating quality content and building relationships with your prospects.
The digital world is constantly evolving, and so must your marketing strategy. Are you aware of the latest changes impacting your website traffic, leads, and sales? Don’t fall victim to these ten digital marketing pitfalls because you don’t have the time or resources to stay up-to-date on all the latest trends. Contact us today for a no-cost analysis of your current digital foundation. We can help you identify any areas that need improvement and put together a plan to get you back on track to conquering the local market.
