A CLASSICAL RAKE IN THE DIGITAL GARDEN

Today we are going to talk about the typical mistakes of a business that is just discovering the world of digital marketing!

Let`s go!

Mistake # 1 Lack of a plan.

I think there is no need for an explanation. Each of us had such a situation: “shit, we have an exhibition in 3 days but brochures are still not ready”. And in a panic, you have to find an executor who will cope with the task 😵

This is how our first contact with the client took place: we didn’t have much time to be creative, so we had to get along with a slight redesign. Rate our work!

Before:

Did it:

The nice design quality is always an added value for the product. It is quite important not to give up on this (read more later).

Our task was to make a clear and visually good-looking booklet in a short time + tell about the benefits. I think we have coped with the task

Mistake # 2 To make a website on your own, without experience, or with the support of non-core agencies.

Nowadays many are caught with this mistake. There is a sacred belief that everyone is trying to trick us, we will do it by ourselves, or something like this: “why to pay so much, it’s just a website”.

We had a similar situation with our client. The product`s website was developed by a travel agency (yes, it happens).

Together with the site itself they received:

• boring template design – similar to that all agency clients had;
• poor optimization, prolonged site loading;
• poor quality of photos (without taking into account the initial extension of the pictures, they were stretched over the site template). Good pictures are still a crucial factor for a business in this area;
• lack of analytics (how many people reached the website; where did they come from; what actions were they doing; and how many requests they had left) Why to track the metrics if you can fortune tell on tea leaves 🙌 🙂
• unjustified monthly fee.

So, the website has become our next task. But it was New Year Eve, so our time and asses were on fire🔥.

That’s how the site looked like before our interference:

The technical task stated: “White background and a lot of photos.”

Due to the tight deadlines and such technical task formulation, it was difficult to come up with something interesting. We, albeit just a little bit, made some creativity. Those who have read our first episode of Hell`s Kitchen can be roughly guided by how ideas are born. In this case, to evaluate the works, you have to follow the link.

Try not to scroll very quickly 🙂

A short teaser for the most impatient ones:

But the point of our design is precisely in the animation: we tried to convey the mood of Zakarpattia and “Erney Laz”, in particular, through it. Those who have been there will feel it…

Our team personally explored the location and is planning to go there again soon and we recommend you to do the same. We guarantee the quality from our own experience, so here’s a link one more time. You can admire the clouds and organize a luxury holiday for yourself this winter!

The clouds, by the way, show an amazing result: now we are at the first stage of the funnel, which is to get the maximum number of people to visit the website. And when an unheated audience gives out such metrics it seems unreal.

Mistake # 3 Not to advertise.

There are also many excuses here, I will give counter-arguments right away.

1. Well, we used to live without advertising before, everything was fine. And now it is getting worse and worse, the population is getting poorer or prefers to fly abroad. – No, they just don’t know about you. The basic rule of offline business (location, location, location) does not work here: you should show people yourself, offer smth that overcomes competitors, surprise the audience, etc. This is required by the modern market competitiveness.
2. Well, we don’t have money for advertising right now, things get worse as it goes on. – Guys, the money will not appear, do not build illusions: to get something, you need to give/make something, to make efforts and spend money. The faster the better: if you take over digital before your competitors, it will be very difficult for them to catch up with you. And vice versa…
3. Well, none of us knows how to do this: how to be sure that we do not take amateurs who will only aggravate the situation. – Nobody will give you guarantees, unfortunately. But there are plenty of offers: freelancers, small companies, agencies, a friend of a godfather/father/brother who will do everything for a bottle of aqua vitae. You will have to choose from… There are options for any request and budget – it is important that the contractor is involved in your project and has the necessary competence. But doing nothing because of fear of failure is not an option. In such a case, the situation will never get better and mistakes are not the end of life, but valuable experience for the future.

After the client had come to terms with the fact that he needed to invest in advertising (this is exactly an investment), we started “grooming” the social networks, and suddenly…

Mistake # 4 Lack of wrapping.

This is actually one of the most painful topics:

-We need to make beautiful social networks and a website.

-Okay, do you have a brand book?

-Yes, here it is (an archive with the logo in fact).

-But it’s just your logo, and what we need is the instructions on how to work with the brand.

-Oh, doesn`t matter, work with what you have.

 

And that why it is needed: almost any business, especially offline, once needs to tell the client about something. When F.A.Q. start to get you bored, printouts go in use. I think everyone has come across a similar table or stand, where there is a bunch of variable shit, which was made by the first unlucky employee. And there is nothing to scold him for, he did his best but usually, it looks like this:

And this is just the smallest thing without taking into account boards, signs, advertising materials, and other things. Everything should correspond to the same style, each stage affects the customer’s purchasing decision. It’s hard to fit everything into one point. A good long read is needed for this.

Mistake # 5 Social networks.

Sometimes they simply do not exist, which is terrible for our time, and sometimes it happens like this:

Company page created as a person on Facebook.

Why is this a mistake?

Surely, it’s cool when your company has a lot of “friends”, BUT:

• to run ads – not possible;
• making mailings – not possible;
• find your company like a business – not possible;
• track page statistics – not possible;
• and much, much more IS IMPOSSIBLE to do.

In short, when registering a company on Facebook, create a business page for it. Here are the instructions on how to do this, just in case.

Mistake # 6 Photos.

Have you seen the site we made?

So green, so beautiful…

But now is winter, a New Year advertisement, and there is no snow. How to advertise with summer photos? This mistake can be related to mistake #1.

In short, people decide to buy something on an emotional level in 99% of businesses. There are such thoughts as “these guys seem that they will not trick me”, “a little more expensive, but looks tastier”, “Seems like this product will last longer”, etc.

This kind of logic works only for the very basic products (buckwheat is cheaper, eggs are fresher, socks are warmer, etc). And in the competitive market, it all comes down to emotions when you choose between different products. Sometimes a split second is enough to make a decision, the rest of the time goes to justify your decision.

Ohh, I am speaking out of topic.

We have created the correct page, slightly “groomed” it:

We asked to announce on the previous page that now all the news will be on the new page, and you won’t believe it…

Mistake # 7 Not to do something new

The elephant is eaten piece by piece…

Nowadays the very fact of being active is more important than the activity itself.

Fresh example: we made 1 banner, showed it to regular customers, and the first calls have already started, directly from the community… And it took us just an hour of work.

     – “We do not want to change anything, our constant customers come to us regularly and know what they want. If we start changing something, it may scare them away.”

First, such customers will get everything they love so much + a little more. Second, everybody understands that the cost of business of this kind grows over time, and it’s not easy to raise the price, as the constant customers get very upset when the price rises, but the value does not.

At the same time, to bring new clients immediately at a slightly higher price is much easier, but do not overdo it ❌

Mistake # 3 Not to advertise (extended).

So, we dug out winter photographs somewhere in the basement and made the banners:

These are for the first contact:

These are for the return of site visitors from the first banners and to squeeze them on:

It is almost impossible to sell on straightly now, at least a small marketing funnel is definitely needed (from a retarget, advertising works much better for already warmed-up people).

A bit of targeting magic:

 

And here are the results:

 

And for the services market, 2 cents is a very good price per click, but besides that, people are too lazy even to go to the site in this niche: they prefer to ask questions directly in the comments under the post 🙂 This is far from the first hotel and restaurant complex we help to.

 

The conclusion of the entire post:

To get something, you need to do something…

We have noticed that our work with all the companies does not end only with marketing: as soon as changes touch the company online, offline is not long in coming.

Here we have the same examples: employees have learned to communicate with customers on Facebook, conduct social networks, calls began to change from informational to selling ones, even the first image of sales analytics appeared.

Sometimes just a small kick is needed for the rapid growth of a business…

However, try to understand me correctly: do not be afraid to make mistakes, launch something new, experience new tools. You never know what will blow up, but if you do nothing, nothing will blow up 💥