Digital marketing is an essential process, and businesses should draw sufficient attention to maximize their benefits from it. However, not all organizations manage to succeed with the task, and typical errors exist. Digital marketing mistakes include spamming, focusing on traffic rather than on customers, overpromising, ignoring social trends, and overusing mobile marketing techniques. Each of them adversely affects online customer behavior, leading to increased expectations, decreased motivation, fears, and less active purchasing behavior.
First, spamming is one of the most widespread marketing mistakes. It refers to sending a high number of messages to customers. In some countries, specific laws act to protect citizens from this practice (Bala and Verma, 2020, p. 331). That is why there is no doubt that spamming can lead to customers’ lower motivation and dissatisfaction with the brand. Facebook and Victoria’s Secret are among the most prominent organizations that are accused of this misbehavior (Huddleston, 2016, para. 5). Disadvantages of spamming should not result in banning e-mail marketing that can produce essential benefits if supported with a theoretical model (Umair et al., 2021, p. 1241). Thus, a professional marketing approach can help mitigate the negative aspects highlighted above.
Second, focusing on traffic instead of customers is also a marketing mistake with adverse consequences. Goyal et al. (2021, p. 733) stipulate that the websites on the first search page receive the maximum traffic. That is why organizations invest much effort to be among those websites. This mistake is also associated with a failure to promote customer engagement (Cooley, 2019, para. 7). Such a situation can make potential clients unwilling to deal with the business.
Third, overpromising and underdelivering result in adverse consequences for organizations. According to Herrick (2020), possible disadvantages include depleted credibility, negative reviews, false expectations, and others. Simultaneously, overpromising can lead to reduced customer loyalty, which affects buying behaviors (Chaffey and Smith, 2017, p. 180). United Airlines exemplify how the given mistake can affect a business because the company’s promise of friendly skies did not match rising prices, overcrowded planes, and others (Gallagher, 2018, para. 9). Consequently, it is reasonable to check whether a business can deliver what it promises.
Fourth, the failure to utilize social media trends is an adverse strategy because they unite many customers. According to Apac CIO Outlook (2021), social media is excellent for personal branding because it directly connects businesses with their target audience. In particular, the reliance on these data contributes to creating a contemporary and appealing strategy that is attractive for the target audience (The Blu Group, 2019, para. 21). If this approach is absent, customers do not have additional motivation to interact with a brand.
Finally, relying on mobile marketing experiences can also have adverse outcomes. This strategy implies many challenges, including negative branding, irritation, privacy issues, security concerns, and others (Kumar and Mittal, 2020, p. 533). Consequently, consumers do not like mobile marketing since it makes them fear the loss of personal information. This strategy also relies on disturbing messages and intrusive pop-up advertisements (Smith, 2011, p. 5). That is why customers do not always receive positive experiences from dealing with mobile marketing.
In conclusion, digital marketing is subject to a few mistakes that include spamming, focusing on traffic, overpromising, a failure to use social trends, and overusing mobile marketing techniques. These issues adversely affect customers, making them experience reduced motivation, false expectations, fears, and others. Consequently, organizations should do their best to ensure that such mistakes do not affect their marketing activities to avoid adverse outcomes.
Reference List
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Chaffey, D. and Smith, P. R. (2017) Digital marketing excellence: planning, optimizing, and integrating online marketing. 2nd ed. London: Kogan Page.
Cooley (2019) Digital marketing: what not to do (6 easy-to-solve marketing mistakes). Web.
Gallagher, J. (2018) To stay off 20 most hated companies list, don’t overpromise or underdeliver.
Goyal, A. et al. (2021) ‘The new era of digital marketing: a literature review,’ PalArch’s Journal of Archeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 18(10), pp. 728-741.
Herrick, J. (2020) The dangers of overpromising and under-delivering.
Huddleston, T. (2016) These 15 companies flood your email with the most spam.
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Smith, K. T. (2011) ‘Digital marketing strategies that millennials find appealing, motivating, or just annoying,’ Journal of Strategic Marketing, pp. 1-25. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1692443
The Blu Group (2019) 10 big social media marketing mistakes & how to avoid them.
Umair et al. (2021) ‘How digital marketing influences purchase intention? A case of fast-food industry’, International Journal of Management (IJM), 12(3), pp. 1238-1247. doi: 10.34218/IJM.12.3.2021.117