5 Easy Steps To Avoid Web Marketing Success

Failure. It’s the true key to success, but how can this be? Every mistake teaches us something. Think in the longterm; if you end up with enough lemons, you could make limoncello. 

Okay, let’s be fair. Failure isn’t something everyone aspires to, but your website’s lack of visits might be forsaking your success story. Just because you set up a website and opened for business doesn’t mean you’re ready to compete in today’s online marketplace.

Often, there is a thin line between success and failure, but there are some key aspects of branding and web presence that are catastrophic failures. Let’s run down a handful of these marketing mistakes so you can stop dodging your business goals and start accruing achievements: 

#1 Your logo (and branding) is terrible.

Designed by a hipster graphic designer who describes your logo as “experimental” and “ahead of its time.” This is not the best choice for your otherwise serious and conservative legal consulting company, but you enjoy helping out a struggling artist. Kudos for your benevolence, but your branding just got curved.

Equally depressing are logos created from MS Office clip art with the addition of your company name emblazoned in Papyrus Bold. NOTE: If you use the Papyrus font, you’re gonna have a bad time. Furthermore, logos composed of cliché illustrations, nauseating color schemes, and horsey typography will only summon the branding police — who happen to have a killer logo.

#2 Your UX/CX SUX.

Forcing a bad user experience on your customers in the form of poor design lacking content marketing strategy and structure, is the moral equivalent of cooking fish and broccoli in the company microwave. No matter where you navigate, it will stink. The only way to avoid it is to leave. Sites that are not designed according to the taste and preferences of your target audience will not increase traffic or encourage anyone to come back to your site. Keeping users engaged through simplicity, predictability and consistency will bring them back — along with answering your user’s questions. 

If you’re a new business owner or a startup, making this fatal mistake will cost you from the get-go. Transfer this unattractive service to an unresponsive mobile experience and you’ve got all the deterrent you need to chase away all your potential traffic and customers.

#3 Your SEO is 404.

Let’s face it, you’re not found. You’re MIA; AWOL. You think SEO stands for Sports Entertainment Organization. Search engines classify your weak site as a theoretic existence akin to the mysterious Bigfoot. While you might not understand everything there is to know about Search Engine Optimization, you need it in order to rank in web searches and by actually giving your buyer personas what they want to see will give you an SEO ranking boost. Plus, if you blogged a couple of times per week using relative business long-tail keywords, your site's SEO value and ranking would vastly improve. You could think of this as, “Survivability Enhancement Options.” Having optimized webpages, with keywords and phrases your target audience would use, will help potential customers find you first rather than your competition. 

#4 Your content is stagnant.

No love. Abandoned amongst cobwebs and crickets. Your dim site dangling motionless in the big ol’ internet ocean, like a fish hook without bait. If you’re of the mindset of set it and forget it, you aren’t alone. There are endless numbers of failing websites out there lacking fresh content. These stale sites have a counteractive affect on Google’s search engine ranking. This is why relevant content in the form of updated pages and blog publications keeps Google and your audience coming back to your site. Updating your content ensures visitors your business is credible and backed by real humans that offer real solutions.

#5 Your promotion-less thrust.

Promotion is the one key that so many smart business owners don’t have on their key ring. In order to grow your leads and get leg up on the competition, promoting your business using social channels is an important lead generation method — it has been and will continue to be a fruitful way to promote. It is a tool and opportunity for engaging with your target audience. The key here is to engage them often with helpful content rather than force a hard promotion of your business and services. This doesn’t mean you never pitch — it just means you wait until it is wanted.

These are mere drops in the bucket of web marketing missteps and suggestions to overcome them. No one seeks failure, but the lessons learned from it can be valuable enough to write a blog about to share. Speaking of sharing, pass the limoncello, per favore.