Revealed: 9 biggest digital marketing mistakes in the UAE

Even the most seasoned marketing professional is susceptible to making a mistake or two in the very changing landscape of digital marketing. Usually you will spot an error when you are met with undesirable results, or, no results at all because you didn’t track a key conversion within a campaign.

Below are nine digital marketing mistakes that one does not want to make and some tactics to avoid them.

1. Work in silos: It is important for separate departments to work together throughout the sales cycle to offer the best experience for each client / customer. This helps to ensure that your company is being as efficient as possible and sending a consistent message out across all channels and departments. By doing this, you will build trust in those customers that have multiple touch points with your company as each experience will be similar

2. Work without process: Each one of your digital marketing initiatives should have a clear outline and goal in mind. Each time you set up an account for a client, the steps and process should be the same. Each time you implement a new technology or launch a campaign, there should be a process to follow to ensure there is no human error – how do you Q/A your search marketing campaigns for example?

3. Forget campaign goals: This is a big one. Countless stories have been told of marketers designing fantastic campaigns without setting up the appropriate tracking to measure success. It is important to define the goals of campaign prior to launch and set up and test the tracking in Google Tag Manager before the launch of the campaign. This way you can measure the ROI of the campaign and prove the success of the campaign. Without it is difficult to prove the benefit of the effort.

4. Don’t think with a customer-centric mindset: Your customers should be at the centre of your universe. Nowadays, marketers have endless tools at their disposal to provide customers with a tailored individual experience. Those marketers who are ignoring this opportunity and who aren’t looking to their customers for direction and inspiration will be left behind whilst their competition walks away with the market share.

5. Forget Mobile: Unless you have been sleeping under a rock, it is clear by now that mobile is more important than desktop. You company and marketing team need to have a sound mobile strategy for both paid and SEO purposes. You need to make sure your website is optimised for mobile SEO and that each search marketing campaign considers mobile ads as well as desktop. Consider what role mobile plays in your customer journey and how you can find your audience in the right place on the right device.

6. Missing the mark on personalisation: Less personalisation is better than the wrong personalisation recommendations. Whether the personalisation is name, gender, products or suggested content, if it isn’t correct, your target audience will unimpressed if it is wrong. Millennials are increasingly looking for brands to impress them with the right content. Make sure you meet this request.

7. Ignoring abandoned carts: An abandoned cart is the sign of an engaged user who has the potential to be reengaged. There are many reasons why a user may abandon their cart and by implementing a strong cart strategy, you can drive further conversions by reminding your customer of what they left behind.

8.  Outsource your social media: This is by far one of the biggest mistakes a company can make. The bottom line is, you know your brand better than anyone else, and this will ring true in the voice of your social media. If you aren’t careful, your social will fall flat because it lacks the charisma of your brand. You can outsource many things, but social media is not one of those things.

9. Lack understanding for the importance of measurement: You must use Google Analytics to measure your results. For long-term campaigns, set up events and goals to track conversions through the course of the campaign. Measuring conversions can help you develop strategies to improve results and spot sticky parts of the campaign that may have seen a huge drop off in customers. Measurements will also help to build a case for future initiatives, especially if it is a success.

Alexander Rauser is the CEO of Prototype