Mistakes are inevitable when investing in online marketing.
Whether you’re a seasoned online marketer or you’re just starting, you most likely have made some mistakes in your campaigns. And if Joe Wooden’s quote, “If you aren’t making mistakes then you aren’t doing anything,” is anything to go by, you shouldn’t worry about making some mistakes.
However, some errors can be pretty expensive and can undo what you’ve spent years building. So it’s best to know what they are, primarily by learning from others in the same industry as you are and avoid them. With that in mind, below are some of the most common online marketing mistakes and how to fix them.
What Not To Do When Investing In Online Marketing
Relying Too Much On Paid Advertising
With the right strategy, paid advertising can grow your business and increase your brand’s awareness. It’s also very easy to spend thousands of dollars and not see any returns. For instance, the online betting market is one of the most competitive. As a result, the CPC (cost per click) on Google Ads and other search engines can be quite high. Make one mistake, and you lose thousands of dollars.
What You Should do
It’s best to leverage different free sources of traffic, such as SEO and social media. For starters, have a blog within your sports betting website, and make sure you create content regularly. You should also optimize the content for keywords customers in your industry could be searching for.
There are many free ways to engage your followers on social media, grow your following, and even turn them into customers before spending a dime. And don’t just post blogs or social media content to follow the trends. Your content should add value to your readers.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not discrediting paid advertising. All I’m saying is to have a holistic approach to online marketing by combining free and paid methods.
Case Study
Betting Expert, a leading sports betting company, has one of the best online resources for upcoming and seasoned punters. They share news and even have an academy where they teach all there is to know about betting online. Bet365 and Paddy Power are also known for leveraging social media to gain and retain customers.
Targeting the Wrong Audience
If you’re getting several clicks to your ads or thousands of traffic to your website but no conversions, you may be targeting the wrong audience. You could also be targeting everyone, which could be a massive waste of resources.
What You Should Do
You need to conduct deeper research of the demographics and curate content and advertisements that would appeal to that demographic. For instance, most of the online sports betting community are between the ages of 18 and 45. Some are interested in soccer, basketball, horse racing, football, or any other sports you may be offering.
Your job is to find out what each of these groups relates to most and incorporate that into your marketing strategy. The location you’re targeting matters too. The phrases, language, and values that appeal to the USA population may differ from what may appeal to punters in the UK or Africa.
It would be best if you didn’t stop at finding the demographic. Dig deeper to find your ideal buyer persona. This includes finding out psychographics, a social science that helps identify individual traits. CDC Gaming Reports identifies at least 7 sports betting personas that can help you narrow down your target audience.
Not Measuring Results and ROI
If you do not measure the results you’re getting from your marketing campaigns, how will you know what’s working and what’s not? You can’t. Unfortunately, many online businesses are still not measuring the effectiveness of their marketing strategies.
Those that try to measure don’t always get it right. Some misunderstand the metrics without finding out which marketing channel converted more than the others.
Don’t just invest in online marketing blindly and expect to grow your business. You’ll be setting yourself up for failure, and you’ll be depleting your financial reserves.
What You Should Do
Have you ever heard of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)? These are metrics that can help you measure how successful your online marketing strategy is. They are also specific to each business, so make sure you are using KPIs related to your business. Below are some of the most common KPIs for sports betting online marketing strategy.
· GGR (Gross Gaming Value) – This is the gross revenue of the betting company after they pay out the winnings.
· NGR Net Gaming Value – This is the net profit after paying salaries, taxes, commissions, marketing agencies, and all other expenses necessary to running your business.
· Cost-Per-Acquisition – This is how much money you have to spend to get at least one sign-up. If you spent $1000 on Google ads and got 10 new sign-ups, your CPA is $100. The CPA may vary depending on the marketing channel, and a lower CPA often leads to a higher ROI.
· Conversion Rate – This is the ratio of the people who visited your website or saw your ad, signed up, made a deposit, or any other action you needed them to take. This can help you re-evaluate your website design and performance, target audience, or marketing channel. You should invest more in the marketing channel with a higher conversion rate.
Other KPIs to track include;
· Churn rate
· Customer lifetime value
· The average revenue per customer
· NGR to Bets ratio
· Bets to deposits ratio
Having No Goals or Unrealistic Goals
Setting aside a marketing budget or tracking KPIs will be impossible if you don’t know what you’re working towards. Having an unrealistic goal doesn’t help either since it leads to frustrations and losing confidence in the whole online marketing process.
What You Should Do
Set realistic goals related to your business (both long-term and short-term), map out a way to achieve those goals, and set up methods to check how you’re doing after some time. If you’re not sure of the exact goals to set, check your historical data, or consult businesses in the same industry.
When setting goals, don’t focus on one aspect of the business. Ensure everyone is involved, from marketing, sales, HR, customer service, website developers, operations, executives, etc.
Wrapping Up
And there you have it, don’t wait to make these online marketing mistakes. Re-evaluate your marketing strategy and make sure you utilize a wide range of effective marketing channels, make sure you are targeting the right audience, measure your results, and set realistic goals.
Partner With Us
Scoresandstats is one of the leading sports betting news websites offering real-time news on sports, bookmakers’ reviews, odds reviews and analysis, and betting tips. They report on a wide range of sports, including soccer, football, baseball, and basketball. They also offer advertising services, where you have access to more than 100,000 followers who are already looking for the best betting offers. Better yet, they utilize both SEO and social media to push their brand, allowing you to test different marketing channels.