#81 The 5 Biggest Digital Marketing Mistakes (and How to Fix Them Fast!)
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Are you feeling stuck in your digital marketing? Maybe you’re showing up everywhere, posting consistently, but still not seeing the results you want. If so, you might be making one (or more) of the most common digital marketing mistakes I see women entrepreneurs make.
The good news? These mistakes are fixable! And in my latest episode of She Is Unstoppable, I walk you through exactly how to shift your strategy and start seeing results. In this post, I’m breaking down the top five mistakes, along with actionable fixes that will help you simplify your marketing and finally gain traction.
Mistake #1: Trying to Be Everywhere Without a Strategy
- Why It’s a Problem: You don’t need to be on every social platform—just the right ones! Spreading yourself too thin leads to burnout, inconsistent messaging, and wasted time.
- The Fix: Choose one or two platforms where your ideal clients are hanging out. Focus on creating high-quality, engaging content there before expanding.
Mistake #2: Focusing on Followers Instead of Leads & Conversions
- Why It’s a Problem: Having thousands of followers means nothing if they’re not turning into paying customers.
- The Fix: Instead of chasing vanity metrics, focus on lead generation. Build an engaged email list and create content that nurtures your audience toward conversions.
Mistake #3: Not Having a Clear & Compelling Message
- Why It’s a Problem: If your messaging is vague or confusing, your audience won’t know what you do or how you can help them.
- The Fix: Get crystal clear on your brand message! Define:
- Who you help
- What problem you solve
- How your offer transforms their business/life
Mistake #4: Neglecting Email Marketing
- Why It’s a Problem: Relying solely on social media is risky. You don’t own your followers, but you do own your email list!
- The Fix: Start nurturing your email subscribers with valuable content, stories, and offers. Consistency is key—email your list at least once a week!
Mistake #5: Overcomplicating Marketing
- Why It’s a Problem: Many entrepreneurs treat marketing as a bunch of disconnected tasks (social, email, blogging, ads) instead of a streamlined system.
- The Fix: Create a repeatable system. Batch content, repurpose posts, and automate where possible to save time and stay consistent.
Take Action: Listen to the Full Episode!
If any of these mistakes sound familiar, don’t stress—you’re not alone! The key is recognizing them and making small shifts to simplify and optimize your marketing.
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Transcript:
[00:00:07.780] – Deanna Hinsz
Welcome to She is Unstoppable, the podcast for ambitious women ready to break free from the 9: 00 to 5: 00 and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, DeAnna Hins, digital marketing strategist, entrepreneur mentor, and a woman who took the leap from corporate life to full-time entrepreneurship and never looked back. I’ve been where you are, and now I’m passionate about showing you how to build and scale a business that works for you. In each episode, we dive into actionable tips, inspiring stories, and real strategies to help you grow your business, boost your confidence, and create Unstoppable momentum. Whether you’re just starting out or ready to elevate to the next level, you’re in the right place. Let’s get started. Hey there, Unstoppable entrepreneurs. Today, we’re diving into the biggest digital marketing mistakes that I see over and over again, especially with women entrepreneurs who are trying to grow their business online. But don’t worry, I’m not just pointing them out. I’m giving you the exact fixes so that you can shift your strategy, simplify your marketing, and start seeing results. If you ever felt like you’re doing all the things but still struggling to attract clients, convert your followers into paying customers, or just get visible in a way that doesn’t feel exhausting, this episode is for you.
[00:01:37.090] – Deanna Hinsz
Let’s break it down and fix these common marketing missteps so that you can move forward with confidence. You ready to dive in? Let’s do it. Have you ever felt like you’re doing all the right things in your marketing, but you’re still not seeing the results that you want? Well, what if I told you that just a few small shifts could completely change how you attract and convert your customers online. I’m going to go through a few mistakes, and maybe one or two of these might sound familiar. Mistake number one, trying to be everywhere without a strategy. Why do entrepreneurs feel the pressure to show up on every platform? I hear it all the time, people saying, Well, you need to be here and you need to be there. They’re usually suggesting to be on a particular platform because it’s working for them and it’s a great platform for them. Maybe it’s also a great platform for you. That’s why they’re sharing. They’re sharing out of kindness because they’re like, Hey, this platform is doing amazing things for me. I’m getting clients, and I bet if you came over here, you will, too. Maybe you will.
[00:02:55.560] – Deanna Hinsz
But what happens is that you hear it from this person, you need to be on LinkedIn, you need to be on TikTok, you need to be on Instagram, you need to be on Facebook. You hear all these different platforms, and all of a sudden, you’re showing up on all these things. Well, here’s what happens when you do that. You waste a lot of time and a lot of energy creating content to fit that particular platform. The real impact is on your time, your energy, and your results. You don’t need to be on every platform. What you need to do is be strategic. Choose one platform that works for you. When I say works for you, what I mean is choose the platform where your ideal client is hanging out. That’s the platform to start working on. Create content. But here’s the thing, right? You want to create content for them, but you don’t have to keep recreating the wheel. If you create, majority of your content is evergreen, which means that it’s always working. It doesn’t go out of style. It’s always real. It doesn’t change you can repurpose that content. You schedule something today.
[00:04:21.080] – Deanna Hinsz
It’s a piece of evergreen content. You know in six months, eight months, a year, year and a half, it’s still going to hold true. This is a fact that just doesn’t change. You can repurpose that content down the road and use the same exact piece of content. You can also take that content and in a shorter time frame, just change the picture or change the words. We think that people pay attention to every single thing we post, and that would be amazing if they did. But if you change the picture and repurpose the same content, more times than not, your end user will not realize that you just use that again. Repurpose the content. Pick a platform that works for you, where your ICA is, that’s your ideal client avatar, and market on that platform. When you get in that groove and you start to see it work, if you want to add another platform, that’s great. Go ahead and add another platform. There’s nothing wrong with being in more than one place. What the problem is, is when you’re trying to be everywhere and you don’t have a strategy and you don’t really know exactly what you’re posting, you’re just hosting the same thing across all the platforms, then it’s not working.
[00:05:41.210] – Deanna Hinsz
You want to be familiar with the platform. You want to know your ICA inside and out, and you want to be strategic. That’s one of the biggest mistakes that I see. Mistake number two is focusing too much on your followers. Now, what you What should you be focusing on? I mean, followers are important because it brings you an audience, but really what you want to focus on is leads and conversion. I don’t understand why so many business owners equate their follow account with business success. I don’t care how many followers you have. You can have 5,000 followers, you can have 50,000 followers. If they’re not converting, it’s complete garbage. If they’re not working with you, if they’re not converting into leads or sales, it doesn’t matter. You can have 500 followers, and those followers can be completely engaged with you. They can be the followers that are sharing your content, that are turning into leads, that are buying your products or paying for your services. That’s what you want. Don’t focus so much on the follower count. Now, I will say, here’s the benefit of the followers, is that the audience is larger. A couple of things can happen when you have a larger following.
[00:07:04.910] – Deanna Hinsz
One is it could build credibility. Please don’t do this. Sometimes, and I know people who’ve done this, they will pay to get fake followers. They’ll pay one of these companies that will just promise to build their followers, and they do, but they’re not the ICA, and it ends up damaging their platform that they’re working on. It makes it worse not They do it because you’re like, Well, if I have all these followers, then I have more credibility. I get it, but do not do it. It actually will create a larger headache than what you think you’re dealing with right now. Just create great content. Bring value. You want high converting content. You want to make sure, and this is your fix, when you are creating content, make sure that it speaks to your ICA. Then what you want to do is who cares about the followers, but prioritize building your list, your email list. Get them to go over and download your white paper, your lead magnet, whatever it is that you’re promoting so that you can build your email list. Don’t focus so much on your followers. Really don’t. I mean, you want leads and conversion.
[00:08:25.200] – Deanna Hinsz
Pay attention to those numbers, the way you’re paying attention to your followers’ numbers, because that’s really what happens, or that’s what matters the most. The next mistake is you don’t have a clear message that speaks to your ICA. I was guilty of this when I started branching out into different things other than website design and social media marketing, and I tried doing a few other things, which I’m doing now, but in the beginning, when I would share my message, it was really muddy. It was vague and sometimes confusing. If I asked somebody, What do I do? I got vague and confusing answers. That’s because my message was vague and confusing. You really want to sit down, understand your ICA, that should be a top priority no matter what you’re doing, and come up with a very clear and compelling message so that it speaks directly to your ICA. There’s no question on what you do, who you serve, and how you provide a solution. Get crystal clear. What problem do you solve? Now, when you get crystal clear on your messaging and you really can define who you help, how you help them, and the problem that you solve, what ends up happening is that you create great content for that because now you know exactly what you’re talking about.
[00:10:01.010] – Deanna Hinsz
Now you’re being strategic with the content. When it comes to conversion and engagement, when you get crystal clear, you’re going to see an increase of conversions. You’re going to see people engaging more. Not just anybody, your ideal client. You’re going to see a change in that when you get super crystal clear. Mistake number three is just not having a really clear message. Now this one, the next mistake. Again, if you’ve been listening to me or you know me, you know that I was going to talk about this today. That next mistake is neglecting email marketing. Why do so many entrepreneurs avoid or just underutilize email? I understand to a point. I understand because I’ve heard people say email marketing doesn’t work. Okay, so what do they base that on? Well, Because when I get emails, I just delete them. Okay, I get it. I delete emails in my inbox, too. I absolutely do. I get certain emails and I go through and I just delete them. But I don’t delete all of them. Sometimes I open them. Here’s where email marketing gets interesting. Let’s just say that I’m deleting the emails in my inbox. You might think that I’m proving the fact that email marketing doesn’t work, but I’m not.
[00:11:30.110] – Deanna Hinsz
Because what is happening is I see the business name of whomever is sending me that email. Even if I delete it, I see their name. That’s a touch point when it comes to your email marketing or sales in general. It takes so many touches before somebody will decide that they need your product or your service. Just showing up in my inbox is a touch, even if I delete you and I don’t read the message. But what if I do open it? Because if you get a really good subject or maybe it’s a certain time when you realize you need that product, you want that product, do you want that service? Now I’m going to open that email. What happens if you don’t send any emails and I don’t engage with your social media? You fade into the background. You slow down showing up in my feed till eventually you don’t show up in my feed. I’m not getting emails from you. I’m going to forget about you. You don’t want people to forget. What you want to do is consistently nurture that list. Keep creating great content and making great offers so that your ICA signs up for that email list.
[00:12:44.610] – Deanna Hinsz
But when they sign up, it’s not done there. You want to nurture that list. Keep nurturing that list. Get to know them and let them get to know you, your brand, what you’re about. In that email list, that’s where that connection really happens. It doesn’t happen so much on social media. Social media is for everybody. Email, those are for your VIPs. Those are for the people that say yes. They get a little sneak behind the curtain, a better sneak behind the curtain. They get to feel like they really know you. Do not, do not, do not, neglect your email marketing. It is so important to make sure that you’re utilizing it, I promise you. Once you start doing it, and I’ve said this so many times, I feel like a broken record sometimes, but once you start using your email marketing and you have a launch or a new product or there’s something, you will be able, I promise you will be able to almost estimate how many sales you will get from one email because you’ve done it so often and you start to learn and you know that you’ll get sales and you’ll know what percentage will actually convert and get sales.
[00:13:59.840] – Deanna Hinsz
Then you just work on making that percentage higher and higher. It’s amazing. So don’t neglect your email marketing. Mistake number 5. This is the last one. All right, are you ready for this one? Because I see it a lot. All of these things I see so much, but this one is probably the biggest. I don’t blame the entrepreneurs, any of you, for making this mistake. I think we naturally do this because you just don’t know. You didn’t sign up for your business to have to market. Here you are, now a marketing person wearing that hat, too, and trying to figure it out. The fifth mistake that I see is that we overcomplicate things. Why do we overcomplicate marketing strategies? We do because we don’t really know. When I I work with somebody, what I find out is that they see each piece of marketing as an individual piece. Maybe it’s own island. You have your website and your website’s over here. You have social media marketing, and that’s over here. Then you have email marketing over here, and maybe paid ads, and maybe you’re working on SEO. You’ve got these pieces and you work on them individually.
[00:15:31.150] – Deanna Hinsz
I understand that, but here’s the thing. Look at them as a group, as a whole unit, because they work together. You don’t have to overcomplicate. You can create a system that’s repeatable. You can create one type of content. Maybe you have a blog, maybe you have a podcast like this. Maybe you go live on Facebook or YouTube YouTube, whatever. But you’ve got one source where you’re creating content. What you want to do is you can create a lot of pieces of content from that one source. Then you want to batch it. Create as much content as you can and schedule it out. If you’ve got evergreen content, we talked about this with the first mistake, you can actually repeat it and reschedule it for a later date, saving you more time down the road. You can also leverage automation. Now, we talked about email marketing. You automate that email marketing. That’s one type of automation. You’ve got many chat, too, that can automate things when it comes to having conversations on social media or on your website. You can use many chat or some AI to automate. Definitely automate your email. When you have that lead magnet, create that welcome email series that welcomes them, then drops them into something else, into another or maybe your newsletter.
[00:17:06.080] – Deanna Hinsz
If they click on a button, maybe it goes to another automated series. It takes some time on the front-end to set all this up. But once you set it up, it works. Saves you so much time, so much energy. You won’t know what to do with the extra time that you have. Maybe you could take Fridays off, like I do. You want to make sure that don’t overcomplicate your marketing. Really, just simplify. Come up with a system that works for you and automate it. It really is that simple. Don’t recreate the wheel over and over and over again. Use what you have and put that into place. Create a lot of content. You know what? I do want to show this because there was somebody who… They were on the podcast, and this person is amazing. I love this person. I She said, I don’t batch content. I do it on the fly. You know what? That’s totally cool. There is nothing wrong with doing that. Now, here’s what I would suggest. I think having content in real-time is super important because it keeps it real, which helps you connect with your ICA. But I also think that there’s content that could be created ahead of time, and it doesn’t take that much time.
[00:18:23.200] – Deanna Hinsz
You can do quotes, you can take pictures of your products that are in and talk just about that product and schedule that. If If you always have that product on, you can repurpose it down the road and reuse it again. I do think that creating content in real-time is valuable. But I also feel if you’re looking to save time, that you want to batch some content as well. It doesn’t make it less authentic by any means. It just helps you save some time. The content didn’t change. The product you’re selling, the service you’re offering has not changed. It’s the same thing, and you can schedule that out. If this is you and you feel like, Oh, my gosh, I can relate to these, maybe one of them, maybe two of them, maybe all five of these mistakes really hit home, you’re like, I’m making these mistakes. It’s okay. These are the ones I see all the time, over and over and over again. It’s possible that you might be, right? Or maybe you’re not. And if you’re not, that is so cool. Keep doing what you’re doing and maybe come on as a podcast guest I would love to talk to you.
[00:19:31.690] – Deanna Hinsz
But if you are, I highly suggest, listen to this again, take some notes and go back through and work on whichever issue, mistake that you have, work on it. If you’ve got more questions, email me, sign up for my newsletter and reply to my newsletter and just share what you’re going through, and I’ll give you a tip on how to simplify it. I promise you. If you are If you’re looking for more information, if this is something that you want to do on your own, come visit me at deannahens. Com. But if you’re looking for somebody to help you do this, you can visit me at carbonsilk. Digital. Either way, I’m going to be sure to take care of you, whether I’m going to help you and consult or give you free tools to do it, or if you just want to get it off your plate, we can help you with that too. All right, guys, I hope you have an amazing day. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week. Thank you so much for tuning in to She is Unstoppable. I hope you’re walking away today feeling inspired, empowered, and ready to take bold action in your business in life.
[00:20:46.290] – Deanna Hinsz
Remember, the world needs your unique gifts and talents, so don’t hold back. If you love today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share with a friend who needs this message. And hey, let’s keep the conversation going. Join me inside the Sheeas Collective, where Unstoppable Women like you come together to grow, connect, and thrive. Until next time, keep dreaming big, showing up boldly, and creating a business that fuels your freedom. You got this because She Is Unstoppable.
