Before spending time and money in digital marketing, make sure to be ready. At Instaon we have optimized thousands of campaigns. These are the most common mistakes we have encountered.
1) 
Post-click experience
Don’t start paying for ads if they lead to a non-responsive website built in the 90s’ that takes 4 seconds to load.
There are enough solutions out there. You don’t need a 15 pages, pixel-perfect website. For most businesses a single landing page can be enough to get valuable leads. Providers like Wix and Squarespace can help you build these in a matter of minutes (ok, maybe hours) and this for the price of a McDonalds menu.
For some businesses, Facebook pages can also be a cheap alternative, but it’s not the most professional approach.
Are you building an Eshop? You can make a perfect webshop with Shopify, Magento, prestashop or Woocommerce.
2) 
Be ready to CLOSE
Online advertising, if done right, will bring you new leads. The price per lead may vary, but you will get leads. The question is: what will you do with these potential new customers?
We live in a fast paced society, in which customers want quick results and competition is higher than ever. Therefore, you (or your sales team) need to react fast and in the right way.
Getting leads is one thing, closing them is another. SMBs tend to put the blame on marketing (‘Omg this is not working…’) rather than assessing their capability of closing deals.
Always try to find where and why your leads dropped. Continuously work on improving these parts, and be ready to close.
Find out where your customers stopped engaging. Simplify your website, go to the point. Call customers when they leave their phone numbers. Ask them for feedback.
3) 
No...magic doesn't exist
Imagine. Just imagine you are in front of your computer. You finally decided to start with online marketing. So, you launch paid ads on Google and Facebook, put 100$… and 
hundreds of new customers knock on your door.
NOPE.. not happening 
Online marketing can be really powerful, but patience is required:
- Nobody knows the perfect ad setup from day 1. Fortunately, online marketing gives you plenty of possibilities to track results (<> traditional marketing). As a consequence, your results can only improve over time.
- It might be complicated to see the real results instantly. Clients can see your ads, but signup for your offer days or weeks later, one satisfied client can be responsible for some good word of mouth, you take market shares from your competitor even if it is pricy in the beginning, etc
Conclusion
Online marketing will cost you money or time and it is important not to waste these ressources. Having realistic expectations and being prepared to close new incoming leads will make sure you get the most out of your investments!
