Digital marketing is an ever changing field because it depends on time, current trends and a ton of tools and platforms. Under such conditions it is impossible for marketers to come up with strategies and techniques that will work all the time. As nothing is steady, marketers can wake up to find out that the method they’ve been developing to get more organic traffic, will not work because Google changed an algorithm. And this takes us to the first nightmare digital marketers have.
New algorithm, new rules
Digital marketing heavily depends on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and of course, the king – Google. And these platforms love changing their algorithms. For instance, on January 17th, Google announced that page speed will officially be a ranking factor for mobile searches. Which means SEO specialists had to shift their attention from desktop to mobiles.
Another example is Facebook changing the content we see on our newsfeed. Before the algorithm change, ads were on the top but now, the activities of your friends will lead the newsfeed. Social media marketing is going to “suffer” because of this modification.
Well, marketers turn on the “adapt, improvise, overcome” mode and look for alternative. With Google, you just need to work on the loading speed of your website. But with Facebook, you can either use multiple channels for promoting your product (Instagram, Twitters, search ads, etc.) Another good option is to switch to Messenger ads until Zuckerberg gets his hands on it too.
Penalty alert
Throughout their career, digital marketers have clients who come to their door with a penalty in hands. Google can penalize websites if they are using the so-called black hat SEO or other tactics that don’t meet the standard SEO guidelines. And it’s not Google who “punishes” users for inappropriate behaviour, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and many other platforms exercise penalties as well.
In digital marketing, penalty means you have nothing to work with until you remove the penalty. So, this nightmare is not a terrible one. It takes time and careful work to recover from penalties and build reputation. First things first, identify the cause of the penalty. Say Google banned your website because of backlinks. In this case, you need to find all the backlinks that you have, remove the inappropriate ones and start proper link building from scratch.
What’s up with your target market
Successful digital marketing begins with understanding the target market. The worst nightmare of digital marketers is not being able to communicate a message across the target market. Marketing efforts can go in vein if you as a marketer don’t base your strategy on their needs, wants, fears or worries.
Customers change day by day and it can frustrating to chase after them to spot behavioural patterns. But you got yourself into this and for the sake of good marketing, you need to do it. You can gather information about prospective customers through research, surveys, and competitor analysis. And you can reach this people through correct medium. For instance, if your target market is 30-45 year old project managers then target them on Linkedin.
Just like any other specialists, digital marketers have their nightmares too. However, digital marketing is flexible and you can play around changes that occur. Be creative and you’ll find solutions!
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