My biggest mistakes 😱

Hey 👋

Welcome to Neighbourhood Post issue #36 - easy to implement digital marketing ideas straight through your metaphorical letterbox.

Thanks for helping spread the news about our new roles. It’s not too late if you know someone who’d be perfect: info and job descriptions here.

Anyway, on with today’s newsletter - I’ll be sharing my shameful mistakes.

👉 By the way, if you’ve missed previous newsletters you’ll find them here.

📩 And if you’ve been forwarded this email you can subscribe here.

🔧 Five digital marketing quick fixes

This may shock you, but I make mistakes. 😱🤯

When I started out, I had a very gracious boss who taught me we learn more from our errors than our successes.

Like the time I had to reprint 70,000 brochures because they included the wrong prices.

Or sent a marketing email to 20,000+ people with the subject line “BHL-2983”.

(Which frustratingly outperformed every other subject line that year 🙃)

Or didn’t scope out a new email service provider properly, which wasted £4,000 and a whole lot of time.

Luckily 14 years later I make a lot less mistakes, but they still happen.

Without wanting to sound like a fridge magnet, it’s not about how many mistakes we make, it’s about the lessons we learn from them.

We’ve worked with dozens of clients over the last few years, and we often see the same mistakes being made.

The good news is they’re quick fixes.

Here are 5 mistakes ❌ and 5 solutions 🔧 

How many have you made?

#1 - Not knowing organisational objectives

❌ We might have digital strategies, objectives and goals, but are they closely intertwined with what your organisation is trying to achieve? Your digital goals shouldn’t just be “growth” and “engagement”, they should be tied to wider brand awareness, positioning and sales objectives.

🔧 Get sight of organisational objectives. If they don’t exist, spend time with senior leadership and get a feel for the priorities. Split them down into quarterly targets and then translate those into digital objectives.

#2 - Reporting on too many metrics

❌ We drown in a sea of metrics. Just because we can measure everything, doesn’t mean we should. Too much data confuses, paralyses and shames us into inaction.

🔧 Choose 3 primary metrics, commit to learning how to improve them, and measure them for 3 months. If you don’t know where to start, choose these: Social media reach, total email subscribers, website conversion rate.

#3 - Ignoring the marketing mix

❌ In 2010 I studied for a marketing diploma. It was mainly useless, but did teach the 4ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. 99% of the time we focus on Promotion and ignore the other three.

🔧 Make sure what you’re ‘selling’ is what people want. Seek feedback fundraising products, conduct customer/donor research, test price points and giving handles. See promotion as the final ingredient.

#4 - Using social media for anything other than awareness

❌ Sorry to break it to you; every call to action you include in social media content will harm your short term and long term performance. “Link in bios” are punished. “Book today”, “Give now” and “Sign Up” are blacklisted by the algorithm. So what do we do now?

🔧 Social media is the new TV advertising. It’s about reaching fresh audiences and building brand awareness. Divert calls to action to other channels. If you have to add them on social media use Instagram Stories. Focus on valuable, entertaining content.

#5 - Caring more about generating traffic than where you’re sending it

❌ You should spend just as much time on your landing pages than your email and paid social campaigns. Too often we send prospective donors and customers to a homepage, or a web page that hasn’t been touched in 12 months.

🔧 Start measuring the conversion rate of your website and key landing pages. Set up Google Analytics effectively. Use an advanced tracking tool like Hotjar. If you generate enough traffic, run A/B tests.

—-

So how did you do?

Which of the 5 is your biggest current mistake?

See you next week.

✌️

What we’re looking at 👀 and listening to 👂

🎧 Lillie has been enjoying Podcrushed - where celebrities get to grips with the heartache, anxiety and challenges of their high school years. Matthew McConauhey’s episode is a particular highlight.

📺 SPORT! We headed to a sports bar during team days this week to soak up the multi-sport action, with Wimbledon on one screen and France vs Belgium on the other. Ps. It’s coming home.

Before you go - we’ll never use these newsletters to directly sell you our services, but we’re always here if you need any expertise or support 👍