Effective online marketing doesn't just happen. It's a result of preparation, planning and practice. The main reason for ineffective online marketing is a failure to do each of these elements well. Spare yourself the time and money that goes down the drain when your marketing is ineffective due to the following reasons:

Reason #1: Not Making Time for It

The Internet changes on a daily basis, and if you don't keep up with the ways in which those changes impact your marketing plan, you'll be left behind. Effective online marketing takes time, and you have to schedule it in no matter how busy you are. Don't assume that the customers you have today will be there tomorrow, because they are often one click away from doing business with your competitors. About 90 percent of your time when you don't have any customers should be dedicated to marketing, and 60 percent of that time should be allocated to online marketing. You can lower the amount of time you spend on marketing as your business grows, but you should do at least one marketing task every day. 

Reason #2: Boring Website

It's better to have a website with only written content, than to have no website at all. Effective online marketing goes beyond web pages full of product descriptions, or articles about your services though. Keep visitors interested with multimedia presentations. Engage visitors with video and audio clips strategically placed throughout the website that sparks interest. You can also post video content on YouTube for viral marketing purposes. Consider launching a podcast on the website, and make it available to download on iTunes or BlogTalkRadio. The longer visitors stay on your website, the higher you'll rank in search engine results.

Reason #3: Marketing Is not Automated

A thriving business is one that's automated. The process of introducing the business to customers to the delivery of products or services is streamlined, and some of it is done automatically using technology. Marketing tasks can be handled the same way, and an otherwise effective online marketing campaign will be ineffective if you don't automate it. For example, use software applications that find Twitter followers for you, so that you don't have to manually find each led. Use other tools to pre-schedule tweets a day or a week in advance, so that you don't miss a tweet if you're sick or handling an emergency.

Reason #4: Lack of Diversity

Diversity in marketing strategies produces effective online marketing campaigns. Don't stick to your favorite forms of marketing, because you're comfortable using that method or it's easy to do. For example, you may love to write and all of your marketing efforts may be geared towards article marketing and blogging. You need to diversify, and branch out into video marketing, which may not be something you like to do.  Look at the marketing activities in your plan and see if all of them fall into the same category. Gradually try other forms of online marketing and measure the results.

When you avoid these reasons for poor marketing, you'll end up with an effective online marketing campaign that can yield great results.

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Daphne Mallory, Esq. is the co-owner of Mallory Writing Services and has written more than 100 articles helping home based business owners and entrepreneurs start and market their business. You can learn more about her here.