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BG Creative // January 15, 2010 // Advertising // 8 Comments
I see a lot of brands make innocent mistakes in their online marketing efforts. Here are some of the most common mistakes I see and how to solve them.
Mistake: Sending an email to your entire subscriber base.
Solution: At the time a customer opts-in to receive email communications, allow them to select the subject matter that interests them. Only send them emails that fall into those categories.
Mistake: Sending customers to your homepage from a banner ad or email.
Solution: Create a specific landing page that addresses exactly what your customer is expecting to see when they click.
Mistake: Not putting a limit on the number of impressions your banner ads give per customer. I have written about this before and I can’t stress this enough.
Solution: Limit the number of times one person is served the same message to five.
Mistake: Freaking out if you see a dip in any kind of analytic.
Solution: Figure out why. What goes up, must come down. Seasonality. There could be a million reasons.
Mistake: Discontinuing a banner ad because it isn’t performing as you expected.
Solution: You should always be testing several versions of the same banner so that you are constantly refining the perfect message, offer, and creative.
Mistake: Giving people too much credit.
Solution: Make things easy. People are lazy.
Mistake: Setting up a Pay-Per-Click campaign and letting it run its course. Often referred to as “fix it and forget it.”
Solution: Constantly monitor performance, competition for terms, success of ad text and your bids.
Mistake: Your URL reads www.mywebsite.com/xrljdoiuds09eryqi
Solution: Create custom URL’s like www.mywebsite.com/aboutme. This is the first place that search engines look.
Mistake: Your link says “Click Here” or “More Information” or some other generic term.
Solution: Make your link say what it is linking to. For example, if you are linking to more information about sea otters, make the link read “Click here for more information on sea otters.” Linked text is SEO Friendly.
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Thanks for the list. Some of them may fall into generic categories like:
- segment, target and be relevant
- create value added content
- don’t spam
Best
Great article, Jennifer! I especially agree with your point about optimizing PPC campaigns and not just letting them run their courses. I’d like to add to the list: listening to your audience via social media to inform targeting and Ad Word bids. Optimization is the term du jour!
Thanks Dominic and Bridget! Those are all great!
I like number 6, people are lazy and they have a short attention spans, about 8 seconds to capture their attention on a site.
.-= Scott Cunningham´s last blog ..The Journey Part Two- The Day After =-.
Thanks for the read and comment Scott.
Number 6 is actually my pet peeve!!
Thanks for the great information. I especially love the mistake about sending people to a main page of a website. Something I had been doing, but I will make it a point to create a specific page and send them to what they are looking for, rather than making them look for it. Thanks again!
Mario, thanks for the read and comments! Yep, it is a mistake that we see a lot of people make — but one of the easiest to fix. Happy New Year!
Thank you for the information. It was very helpful to me with my online business I will definantly be keeping an eye out for what more you have to come.