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A good digital marketing strategy is indispensable for any modern company. Especially since the Internet offers an ocean of potential customers. No matter who your target audience is or where they live, you can find them on the Internet.
However, there are many companies that are not tapping into this large customer market. Some of them fail to execute their digital marketing strategy... others don't even have a strategy!
A company that falls asleep is carried away by the current.
A bad digital marketing strategy will cost you more than just money and time. It can cost you losing your current customers and even ruin your reputation. And we don't want that to happen.
Por eso te presentamos esta lista con los 26 errores que no debes cometer en 2026 en tu estrategia de marketing digital. Si quieres adelantarte a algún tema, puedes hacerlo desde el índice de errores:
- Digital marketing and basics
- SEO
- Social networks
- Content Marketing
- Email marketing
- Website and technical aspects
- Marketing campaigns
Basic mistakes in your Digital Marketing strategy
Failure to put the customer experience first
Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, described perfectly how the customer relationship works. "If you make your customers unhappy in the physical world, they will tell 6 friends. If you make your customers unhappy online, they will tell 6,000 other customers.“.
Pay attention to what your customers are saying. Even if you don't offer 24/7 support, respond quickly to every user who contacts you.
Your interactions with customers on social media are public. Your responses define your brand and show your audience how much you value them.
Customer experience is vital. And, thanks to social media, complaining online is easy and viral. That's why you should strive for a great experience for every customer.
2. Not having a conversion funnel
Engaging with your audience is key in social networks. Attracting traffic and getting conversions should be one of your priorities.
A conversion funnel is a series of steps to convert a visitor into a customer. It is a way to visualize and understand the flow and conversion of your visitors. It will help you identify what you can offer your visitors, according to their needs, to follow your brand.
Having a conversion funnel will help you stay focused on your digital marketing strategy. You will convert your visitors into users, your users into customers, and your customers into evangelists of your brand.
3. Thinking you have all the time in the world
When we start planning our digital marketing strategy we are very optimistic. We set goals as if our work team had no social life. And what happens at the end of the year? Our optimism takes its toll with poor performance.
Remember: you don't have 48 hours a day available to execute your strategy. And even if you do, you can't plan absolutely everything: you will always have unforeseen events. Especially in the world of digital marketing.
Try to be realistic when setting goals for the year. Analyze your time and capabilities. If you want to position your web site, but you don't know how to do it, hire a SEO expert companyIt will be more profitable for you to hire someone who knows what they are doing, than to learn on the job.
4. Forgetting your current customers
This may be the most costly mistake on the entire list. Never forget about your current customers. Getting new customers is a constant challenge in digital marketing. But these are not the only customers that matter.
It costs 4 to 10 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.This is stated by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
The easiest way to keep your current customers engaged is by listening to them. Talk to them and find out why they use your products or services. Understand this and you can continue to surprise them with memorable experiences.
5. Not defining concrete objectives in the digital marketing strategy
Most companies want to make more money or attract more customers online. But they don't have concrete goals in their digital marketing strategies. This lack of clarity can mislead them.
For example, a company that achieved 1.5% more conversions in the year may think that its strategy was a success. When in reality, it could have grown by 22% if it had implemented other digital marketing actions.
Set concrete, clear, realistic, and measurable goals for your 2021 digital marketing strategy (don’t forget to include coping mechanisms for a possible quarantine). Will these goals be set in stone? Of course not. Over the course of the year, you can add or remove goals, depending on how you’re doing. Clear objectives will help you steer your digital marketing actions in the right direction.
Define what you expect for the year in figures that you can measure. You can measure, for example, in KPIs (key performance indicators), but what criteria do you need to set a KPI? You must make sure that it is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and defined in time..
Remember: goals are a starting point for your digital marketing strategy. They will help you stay focused.
6. Having a brand without personality
When it comes to marketing, branding plays a very important role. Without a brand it would be impossible to promote your offices, your stores or your product individually. Your brand brings together all your products, services, values and beliefs into a single concept. And, of course, your brand reflects your company's personality. Or at least it should.
Finding your company's personality through your brand is a labor-intensive process. By Googling you can find many guides that will teach you how to create a brand for free. But if you're serious about your business, you'll let the real professionals do the work.
Don't try to please everyone in your communication, this will make you look like a weak brand. For example, if you sell synthetic shoes and you are against bullfighting, make it known. Many people who are also against bullfighting will join you and you will create a community. Don't be afraid to take clear positions on controversial issues.
Having a brand with a defined personality will help you gain real followers. It will make people who think like you follow you and identify with you. And these people will be more inclined to to buy from you rather than your competitionThey will even recommend you and take you where they go (like followers of Harley-Davidson). This is called brand loyalty.
7. Believing that you are alone in the world
Many times so much work can make you forget that you have competition. A lot of competition: hundreds of companies working every day to take your customers away from you. I am not exaggerating.
Constantly monitor and analyze your competition. See what's behind their successes. Learn from each of their mistakes. Or at least from the ones you can identify.
Also, make connections with marketing colleagues, it doesn't matter if they don't work in your industry. On the contrary: much better if they work in another industry. Create allies and share the challenges of your digital marketing strategy with them. It is very possible that from their perspective they can contribute invaluable things to your strategy.
8. Not investing the necessary time
Doing digital marketing is a lot like being in the stock market on a hectic day. You have to be aware of each of your investments moment by moment. You need to maximize the return on investment and get all the benefits possible.
If you don't spend enough time monitoring your campaigns, you risk losing money. You'll be investing in visitors you can't convert into customers. Or in promotions that lead to nothing. Or perhaps in SEO activities that will be easily outperformed by the competition.
Review the results of your digital marketing actions on a daily basis. Look at the metrics and how your audience is responding. With this data in mind, optimize your campaigns.
SEO mistakes
9. Believing that SEO is a postmodern myth
There are a number of myths about SEO. Some marketing experts claim that SEO is dead. Those same experts also claim that witches exist and that they went to Narnia in December.
We are in the age of artificial intelligence and advanced algorithms. And yet there are people who dare to ignore SEO in their digital marketing strategies. Those people are the ones who lead their websites into oblivion, of course.
Without an understanding of SEO, your digital marketing strategy will fail. You will have fewer visits, so you will convert much less. SEO, even if some people don't want it to be, is still one of the pillars of web presence.
You don't need to know absolutely everything about SEO. If you learn the basics of SEO, you'll be fine. Or you can relax about it and hire a company specialized in SEO.
10. Not identifying the right keywords for you
Many clients ask us the same question: how can I be on the first page of Google?
The answer is always the same: it can't be done.
You can't be omnipresent on Google. Even Wikipedia, which has everything and everyone, can't do it.
Oh, you meant being on the first page of Google when someone searches for “fast food”? That’s it. if possible.
That's why it's so important to discover the perfect keywords for your business. This way you can tell people what you offer. exactly what you are looking for.
Now then: you will want to rank for keywords that have a lot of traffic. It won't do you much good to be the top result on a topic that no one searches for. Positioning on keywords with traffic will allow you to attract new traffic to your website.
Tip: Use Google Keyword Planner. You will be able to find the perfect keywords for you and useful for your target audience.
11. Leaving aside metrics and analytics
Every time someone visits your website, hundreds of data are generated. How did they get there? Where do they live? How long did they browse your website? Which pages did they like the most? Which page did they leave on? All these questions you can solve with Google Analytics with just one click.
And Google is not alone in offering analytics: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter do so as well.
Successful digital marketing campaigns don't happen on the first try. They are the product of a long process of trial and error, analysis and measurement, rinse and repeat.
When we launch a campaign we identify what our audience liked the most and what they liked the least. What our audience liked the most we will try to put into other campaigns. Whereas what our audience liked the least, we will never use again. Never, ever, ever.
You need to get data on everything. It is better to have data and not use it, than to need it and not have it. The data may tell you that your real audience is the Benedictine monks of Tibatí. And meanwhile, you're trying to sell to men and women, ages 22 to 35, from the capital city who love movies.
Using metrics will help you understand the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns. You will be able to know if you are meeting your goals or if you are moving away from them.
Mistakes in your Social Networks
12. Ignoring your Social Networks
"I have notifications on my social networks! What if it's a complaint? I'd better not open the message and everything will magically be solved". These were the last words of a Community Manager before being fired. And with just cause.
The easiest way for your audience to talk to you is through social media. When someone talks to you, listen to them and respond. They will thank you with their loyalty and, why not, by telling their friends about you.
If you manage your networks well, you will see that interactions will start to happen naturally. And most of them will be positive.
13. Be “active” on many social networks
Having an account on a social network is like having a storefront for your company. A store in the most populated place in the world, open 24 hours a day and with the most intolerant people in the world.
As in a store, each account in your social network must have an administrator. Someone who greets people as they enter, who receives customer complaints. Someone who changes the prices of the products and the content of the showcase every day. Otherwise, people will not enter your store and those who used to enter will stop visiting you.
Each social network needs special care. Social networks are fueled by content and time; at the very least. If you can't create content for your networks or interact with your audience, stay away from them. Mismanaging a social network in the midst of the Social Media era can backfire on you very publicly.
Mistakes in content marketing
14. Not focusing on delivering value
Why should anyone visit your website or click on your ads? Are you solving someone's problem? Are you useful to the people who visit you? It is very difficult to find websites that genuinely care about providing value. That's why these sites are highly successful.
Look at the case of Wikipedia. A website that offers free information about almost everything. Your visitors need to find out about something and they find just that. Complete and meticulous information. However, it is not Wikipedia the one that generates that information: it is its own visitors! And they do it because they believe in what Wikipedia believes: that all people can access knowledge.
Every company has, or at least should have, a value proposition. But not every company knows how to communicate it. If you're having trouble finding your value proposition, think about how your company started. What was the problem you wanted to solve and why?
Great companies start because they want to create change. Microsoft wanted to empower the common man to reach his full potential. Apple I wanted to give people tools to challenge the status quo.
Stay true to your value proposition and you will see that your digital marketing strategy will be a success.
15. Neglecting your target audience
You think you're the Superman of marketing, until you realize that you haven't posted on your blog for 5 months. It has happened to all of us.
Your audience feeds on your content. If your content solves your audience's problems, all the better. And if it's high quality, even better.
A good technique to not neglect your audience is to create a publication calendar. Write down the topics your visitors are most interested in and be prepared to write about them periodically.
Remind your target audience that you have them in mind, always. Not all of your content has to be 3,000-word articles. Sometimes a simple thank you message on social media is enough.
16. Trying only to sell, sell and sell
Yes, sales are essential for maintaining and growing your business. But trying to convert every visit into a purchase can be annoying for your visitors.
If you are looking to sell more than you are looking to be useful to your visitors, you are making a mistake.In the long run, this mistake will cause you to sell much less than you expected. Because nobody likes to be sold all the time.
The key to content marketing is to educate first, sell later. Your goal should be to teach your visitor how to solve their problem. Only after teaching, you can include your call to action. At the end of the article, for example.
If you manage to help someone, that person will thank you. Whether it's by telling their friends, subscribing to your website or taking an interest in your services.
Connect with your visitors, offer them value and make them fall in love with your brand. After that, they will be ready to buy anything from you.
17. Not creating valuable content
It doesn't matter when you publish your content or who you are writing to. If your content is poor, it will not be well received. If you're lucky, Google will put you on page 50 of the search results.
In case a user reads your content, he won't be able to get much out of it. If your reader has to read through spelling or grammatical errors, you've lost him. Your reader will not focus on your content, but on your mistakes. Bad content drives your visitors away from your site.
Valuable content, on the other hand, will help you reach your target audience. But what makes content valuable? Usefulness: your content must satisfy the needs of your visitors.
To create quality content you need to get inside your visitors' heads. Identify the questions they have and answer them through your content.
Email marketing mistakes
18. Not increasing your subscribers
A study determined that email marketing gives the most effective 246% ROI for midsize businesses. So if you're not growing your mailing list, you're making a mistake. A large, segmented email database is a marketer's dream.
Derek Halpern, creator of socialtriggers, conducted an experiment to test the effectiveness of the mailing campaign.. Sent the same link to the same number of peoplesome by twitter and others by mail. From the Twitter followers, 300 clicks were obtained. While the same link was sent by mail to the same number of people. generated 4,200 clicks.
The effectiveness of the mailings in Derek's experiment was due to two factors:
- The relationship between incoming emails and Twitter updatesYou're much more likely to open an email during the day than check your entire Twitter timeline.
- La confianza de los que se registran a tu lista de correos. Ellos se registraron porque creen que tu contenido les aporta valor. Por eso, si tienen tiempo libre, van a abrir los correos que les envías.
Building a mailing list is less complicated than you think. You must offer valuable content to your future subscriber and make it easy for them to subscribe. Place your registration form in a visible place and guide your visitor's path to it.
The more people visit your website, the more chances you have to convert them into customers. In other words: more visitors, more clicks, more money.
19. Spamming or bombarding your followers' emails.
As we mentioned in the previous point: sending emails to your subscriber list can increase your ROI 246%. As long as these emails contain valuable content for your subscribers. Otherwise, you may be sent to a spam list from which you can never get off again.
Losing subscribers should be the least of your worries. More subscribers would rather mark you as spam than unsubscribe. If too many subscribers mark you as spam, your mailing server may temporarily disable you. It could even permanently delete your account. And you don't want that to happen, right?
When a subscriber marks you as spam, they are complaining about your content. You may be sending them content they didn't subscribe to, or they are receiving too many emails. In short: they are not interested in the emails you are sending them.
Every time you are tagged as spam, your server gives you an abuse point. If you reach a high percentage of abuse, you will receive a penalty. A percentage of abuse is greater than 0.04%, so be extremely careful.
Technical and not so technical errors on your website
20. Not including any call to action on your website
After a visitor enters your website and reads your first page, what should they do? Do you want them to click a button, leave their details, call you or buy a product from you? Don't let your visitor guess.
Your visitors won't know what to do on your website unless you point them in the right direction. And how can you do this? With a specific call to action.
“Sign up and get 20% off”, “Buy 1 Get 2”, “Click and get free advice”. These types of calls to action tell your visitors what to expect from your website. And if you have a great web design, much better.
If you need help, This article will teach you how to convert your visitors into customers..
21. Having a slow website
If your website is slow, it doesn't matter if you have the best digital marketing strategy, if your website hasn't loaded in 3 seconds, 57% of your visitors will leave your website.
Excessive loading time of your website can be due to several reasons. It can be bad programming, too many scripts, heavy images or slow hosting.
There are many free tools that will tell you the speed of your website: use them. You can get good results with Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix either Pingdom. These tools will help you to detect what is slowing down your website.
If your website has a speed problem, you need to fix it as soon as possible.
22. Not optimizing your website conversions
Forgetting to optimize your website is the best recipe for online failure. Optimizing your website conversions is much easier than it looks. It's a process of trial and error, but with data.
You don't need to have technical knowledge in programming or analytics. You just need to pay attention to some metrics and constantly tweak your page.
A good way to optimize your website is with A/B testing. Two almost identical pages, with changes in text, images or calls to action.
Metrics will tell you which version is most effective at driving conversions. Pick the winning version and compare it with a new, improved version of the same version. And repeat the process. There are no limits: you can always optimize conversions even further.
23. Assuming that because it is responsive, it is readable.
Some people believe that readability issues are just a computer issue. Everyone assumes that because their website is responsive, it is readable. Wrong.
Readability on mobile devices represents a major challenge. There are still no formalized standards and some websites have not adapted. When you try to read these websites, something feels wrong. Maybe you have to zoom in or the typography doesn't work or the content is cut off.
The solution is to browse, browse and re-browse your website. Explore it from start to finish on mobile devices. Read all your content on mobiles and tablets. And above all: double check before publishing new content.
Mistakes in your marketing campaigns
24. Offering all your visitors the same “special offer”
Can you imagine walking into a restaurant and without being asked, they bring you a 400g Baby Beef to the table? This would be great if you love red meat, but if you are a vegetarian, wouldn't you prefer to be asked about your tastes first? It's the same with websites.
Not all of your visitors are in the same buying cycle. Some need to buy your product today, others are just getting informed. And that's totally fine.
Offer each visitor a product or service according to their need. Write free articles for people who are discovering their need. Prepare guides and advisories for those who have already identified their problem. Sell your product to those who have already decided to take clear actions to solve their problem.
25. Misleading advertising, A.K.A. "Selling Smoke".
Misleading advertising is rife on the Internet. Companies promise you everything to get you to become a customer, but then forget about you completely. Who likes to be treated like that? Nobody.
A good slogan can motivate a visitor to buy your products. But if your products don't live up to what you promise, you're going to disappoint your customers. And a disappointed customer will tell their friends, and their friends will tell their friends, and so on. At the end of the day, you'll have a reputation problem that's hard to handle.
You should make sure that the majority of your customers' experiences are positive and satisfying. Your customers expect something specific from your product. And they expect it because you have told themIf your product doesn't do what you promised, the customer will feel dissatisfied.
The level of satisfaction is what remains when you subtract reality from expectation. If you wanted an iPhone (expectation) but you receive a replica (reality), your satisfaction will be negative. On the other hand, if you wanted a replica and you receive an iPhone, your satisfaction will be very positive.
In short: take good care of your sales promise. If you promise something, deliver it and try to surprise the customer by giving more.
26. Don't create mobile-only campaigns
Many agencies think of their digital marketing campaigns for an audience that uses computers. But they forget about mobile devices: a market that has already surpassed computers.
In Latin America, smartphones surpassed computers in 2014.Users spend more time on their mobile devices than on their computers.
You should prioritize your energies on optimizing your mobile campaigns. After the mobile version is ready, focus on the computer version. Mobile devices first, computers second.
The future of digital marketing is on mobile. And the present too.
Conclusion
Is it possible to create a perfect digital marketing strategy? There is no such thing as "perfect" in digital marketing. There are strategies that work and strategies that don't. What is possible is learn from mistakes, both your own and those of others.
A good technique to stand out from your competition is to offer value to your visitors. Put yourself in their shoes and give them real reasons to follow you to the ends of the earth.
Still need some extra help to create a good digital strategy for your company?
Then contact us: we are experts in digital marketing.
All images were downloaded from freepik.com.
