Traditionally, marketing has always been incredibly important for successful businesses. It allows the company to communicate with consumers, while creating a recognizable brand identity. Such aspects are necessary for a company to succeed — but in today’s world, the average consumer is likely to spend more time in the digital world than in the real world. This means that marketers must develop a strong digital market strategy, which — let’s face it — is a whole new ball game. Most successful companies report spending about a quarter of their entire marketing budget on digital marketing. Yet, experts expect that number to rise to 75% of the budget in another five years.

Clearly digital marketing is important for your business to succeed. And perhaps you’ve already begun developing and implementing these strategies. Have you noticed a difference? It’s probably more difficult than you may have previously thought, to not only develop any old marketing strategy, but to develop a high quality strategy that is sure to bring in more consumers and increase sales. But what are you doing wrong?

Here’s a list of the top five reasons your digital marketing strategy isn’t as effective as you thought:

1. Lack of a Strong Plan.
   About half of all companies say that they are using digital marketing, yet they don’t have a strong plan in place. Unfortunately, simply creating a website and Twitter account is not enough to have an effective strategy. Having a plan in place means driving towards more than just self-promotion. Online content has a major impact on most buyers, but its best not to blatantly self-promote, to avoid turning them away.
2. Website Design.
   Web design is perhaps one of the most important and cost-effective aspects of digital marketing. It is important to keep a site up-to-date to ensure that it remains functional, particularly as the industry changes. Plus, with constant updates to mobile devices and browsers, regular updates ensure that users can continue to access the website. You should also be sure to have a mobile-friendly version of your website. Over half of companies that designed a website specifically for mobile devices experienced a large amount of increased sales.
3. Credibility.
   The credibility of your company goes hand-in-hand with the quality of your website design. To achieve an effective online marketing campaign and, thus, increased sales, it is important that consumers trust your company. Almost 50% of people find that the website design essentially determines the credibility of the company. Be sure to stick with an attractive and easy to use layout, to keep customers coming back and increase your credibility.
4. Poor Social Media Presence.
   As you may have guessed, social media is a necessity when it comes to a successful online marketing campaign. Almost half of all consumers count on social media when making decisions for major purchase. While it may seem unnatural for you to post status updates several times a day, it is imperative that your marketing strategy includes a strong social media presence. Tweet those tweets and snap those #instagram worthy photos — and you’ll gain followers in no time!
5. Not Enough Email Marketing.
   A final, and perhaps surprising, important aspect to a successful online marketing campaign is email marketing. Many experts believe that email marketing delivers the highest ROI of any digital marketing tactic. Yet, fewer than 10% of companies have an email marketing team. Perhaps it’s time to step away from the crowd and develop a unique email marketing campaign to ensure that you are developing the strongest digital marketing strategy possible.