5 Deadly Mistakes That Smart Marketers Make

Online marketing is a game of numbers. To some extent, the more you have of a given metric, the more successful your business is.
But this mindset, although not entirely wrong, creates a lot of problems. For instance, even the brightest marketers do these mistakes:

1. Focusing on Traffic Only
Traffic is important. We all know that. But the sole numbers are not what makes a business.
Too many people focus entirely on how many visitors they can get through the door, but don’t do much about the rate at which those visitors convert later on.
2. Having No Actual Feedback From Customers
Every affiliate who wants to stay in a given niche for the long haul and be successful in it, has to pay attention to what customers actually think about the products.
Customers are always the best source of information about a product’s potential to be relevant long term.
So instead of disconnecting yourself and focusing on yet another clever way to promote something new, you’re better off listening to what the customers have to say.
3. Getting Just One-Time Sales
This mistake is very common in affiliate marketing. Instead of building their own platform, getting customers’ data and building a relationship with them over time, many marketers just focus on generating a sale right up front.
That means a lot of dollars left on the table. The average lifetime value of a customer is rarely equal to the amount of money they spent on their first purchase.
4. Believing That Case Studies Apply to Every Scenario
There’s a lot of case studies online on a multitude of topics. On one hand, this is a great thing because we can get all the insights we need to get started.
But on the other hand, those case studies shouldn’t be treated as something that can be always applied to every possible scenario.
A marketing case study is very unique in its nature. It always focuses on a certain brand, certain marketing message, and certain audience. You shouldn’t treat it as a template and try to replicate it hoping for the same result.
5. Executing With No Plan
Taking action is the most important thing you can do as an affiliate. There’s no other way to succeed.
That being said, the efforts you’re making can’t be random or based on the most recent thing you’ve read on some marketing blog.
Marketers who want to be successful long term need to have a plan that spans across more than just the next couple of days. And they need to execute it without getting distracted by some new and interesting marketing method every other day.