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When it comes to digital marketing, one thing is certain – things don’t stay the same from one year to the next. If you doubt that, take a look at how search engine optimization has changed in recent years. It wasn’t that long ago that search engines like Google favored web pages that used keywords as much as possible. Today, “keyword stuffing” is an SEO tactic that can actually hurt where your site ends up in search engine results pages.

With every passing year, new technologies are introduced. Current tools get smarter and more accessible. Consumers rely on technology more and more as they’re exposed to an ever-increasing number of marketing messages.

Influencer marketing has become one of the fastest growing methods of customer acquisition in the digital world, but this wasn’t always the case. Not more than a few years ago, influencer marketing was a somewhat vague marketing concept that was primarily reserved for large companies that had the resources and expendable income to experiment and take risks in order to achieve results.

Today, influencer marketing has an entirely new face. Businesses of all sizes have discovered how to leverage the voice of influencers to increase visibility and promote awareness of their brand. Some would even argue that the use of influencers has become so mainstream that it’s losing traction as a relevant component of digital marketing – especially as consumers are demanding more transparency and authenticity from brands.

The ability to attract new customers and nurture them to the point of conversion and beyond is the backbone of any business. It’s impossible to survive without doing this, but for many businesses the whole process is extremely challenging. It requires that you not only understand your target audience but that you also know how to appeal to them throughout the entire customer journey.

In the marketing industry, we conceptualize this journey in the form of a sales funnel. The prospects at the top of your funnel are going to be in a completely different point in their customer journey than the ones you’ve nurtured to the point of purchase. Content marketing is the most powerful tool you have for fueling movement toward conversion.

In the digital world, things can change in the blink of an eye – especially for businesses who are trying to navigate their way to the top of the heap in search result and drive traffic through digital marketing. The rapidly changing landscape means that small businesses need to be at the top of their marketing game, but this can be a challenge. Small and mid-sized businesses sometimes struggle gaining their footing when it comes to marketing, and as a result, make a few errors along the way that hamper their results.

It’s ok. We all make mistakes. However, businesses like yours can’t afford to keep repeating the same mistakes or to let past marketing errors hold them down. So, where do you start to ensure that your marketing strategy is on the path to success? Here are 5 of the most common marketing mistakes you want to avoid.

Your ability to connect with your audience is paramount to the success of your business. When consumers are looking to gather information about your business, product or service, the first place they turn is their favorite search engine. So, if you want any chance of connecting with them, you need a strategy in place to make sure your business ranks in search engine results.

The strategy you need is search engine optimization, or SEO for short. Search engines like Google determine which sites they’re going to place in search results based on many different factors. Google’s algorithm alone has at least 200 ranking factors, and the weight put upon each shifts frequently. SEO is an approach that focuses on best practices for earning a favorable nod from search engines and ranking high in results.

You don’t need to be an expert in all things marketing to understand the value of a digital strategy for your business. Your goal is to get loads of online traffic funneling toward your website because this is how leads are formed and conversions are made. The goal is simple, but the process isn’t. There’s a lot of advice out there about which digital strategy is best for producing the results you need.

The only problem is this advice usually doesn’t take into consideration the unique nature of your individual business. Even with so much advice floating around, each business is forced to answer the age-old question for themselves – SEO or PPC, which is better for my company?