5 Internet Marketing Mistakes That 90 Percent of Marketers Make

New to online marketing? Don't make these mistakes.

A lot of marketers are consistently making some serious mistakes.

These mistakes cost money, traffic opportunity, and growth. Unfortunately, marketers make these mistakes because they fail to truly understand how to leverage their skills and improve their approach.

If you're like most marketers, you've committed one or more of these mistakes. Let's identify them and find out how to fix them.

1. Relying on one traffic source that "works."

The great thing about digital marketing is the variety and quantity of methods that drive traffic to a website.

That is also part of the risk.

Why? Because the moment that we find one that works, we tend to overuse it and exclude all others.

Dependence on one source of traffic has historically wrecked websites and businesses. This is due to the natural yet unpredictable changes inherent in some platforms.

A website depends on ezine articles for SEO traffic, but loses it when Google's algorithm updates.

An ecommerce shopping site spends all its money on Facebook marketing, but loses 90% of its Facebook traffic when organic reach declines.

One business relies on influencer marketing to broadcast their product, but receives a manual penalty for an unnatural pattern of links to the site.

If one technique works, by all means keep using it. But don't solely depend on it! Always experiment with existing and upcoming platforms as a safeguard.

2. Spending too much time on social media.

Social media is a tricky thing. You can spend a lot of time on it without getting an ounce of ROI.

Many marketers know that they should be "doing social." The problem is, they think that "doing social" is the business equivalent of hanging out on Facebook, liking a few statuses, and posting a few updates.

Social media marketing isn't your typical social media activity. Entrepreneur put it like this:

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn can suck up a lot of time for little return. The efforts of many businesses fall scattershot, wasted and unmeasurable. Your social media efforts should be intelligent and strategic, not haphazard.

Thankfully, social media can be intelligent and strategic. Stop guessing, and learn how to do it right.

Learn your audience.

Pick a few channels to focus on.

Stay consistent.

Test your approach.

Revise and repeat.

The biggest mistake that some marketers make is copying other businesses' tactics without considering whether they apply to their own business.

3. Spending the entire marketing budget on PPC.

I'm a huge fan of paid search, but paid search does not provide the highest marketing ROI.

If you have a marketing budget at all, a significant portion of it should be spent on other methods aside from PPC. Keep in mind that other methods of marketing, such as content and social, do cost money--quite a bit of money, actually.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the average marketing budget spend on content is only 28%. Why? Big ad spends are usually to blame.

Notice, however, that CMI has identified a correlation between marketing effectiveness and the amount spent on content (as opposed to paid search):

There is a correlation between effectiveness and the amount of budget allocated. The most effective B2B marketers allocate 42%, on average, whereas the least effective allocate 15%.

4. Not improving site speed.

Site speed is one of the easiest, quickest, and cheapest marketing moves on the planet.

A simple speed upgrade for your website can do the following:

Increase traffic.

Increase dwell time.

Increase quality of visitors.

Increase leads.

Increase conversion rate.

Here's how to do it in two simple steps:

(1)Run a site speed test. Fast and quick. Use Google Page speed Insights or Pingdom to run a one-minute analysis.

(2)Send the report to your developer and ask him/her to address it. Most developers will be familiar with the issues and know how to correct them. In case you don't have developers, it is possible to contract with people on Fiverr, Upwork, or Growth Geeks who can implement the changes. If all else fails, download free plugins for your WordPress site to make the changes yourself.

After integrating these elements, watch your site speed increase. The process is simple and the benefits are huge.

5. Not calling customers to action.

The CTA (Call-to-Action) is marketing's "on" button. The CTA is the abracadabra moment that turns casual visitors into active customers.

At least it should be. Many marketers make the mistake of not using their marketing channels to call customers to action.

I've heard objections like this before:

That's our blog. We're not trying to sell anything there.

No, the purpose of our email newsletter is to keep people informed.

We'd rather not ask people to BUY! all the time on Facebook.

Each of these objections misses the whole point of marketing. The point of marketing is to get customers to act. If your marketing is devoid of CTAs, and you aren't getting as many conversions as you'd like, then that's your explanation.

CTAs don't have to be over-the-top or distasteful. All you need to do is get people to act.

Here are some simple ways of doing this.

Add a blog sidebar inviting customers to download an e-book.

Offer a free webinar from your homepage.

Invite users to sign up for powerful tactics emailed to their inbox.

Ask users to sign up for a free trial.

Customers often have to be asked to take action, make a purchase, or start the next step. If your marketing doesn't have any calls-to-action, then don't expect them to take any action.

Conclusion

Frustrating as they are, these mistakes are easy to fix.

The first step is to realize that you're making a mistake. Then, you can take practical steps to remedy the problem.

Soon enough, you'll see a measurable increase in your marketing success.

What mistakes do you see as commonplace among marketers?