A survey of 1,021 UK workers carried out by leading digital marketing agency, MarketingSignals.com, revealed that more than 1 in 3 (36%) of business leaders are currently unsure about their digital marketing strategy for the year ahead. 

The research also identified a number of ways businesses are missing out on improving digital marketing performance, with 37% of respondents admittingthey aren’t answering potential customer questions adequately enough on their own website.

Moreover, virtually 1 in 3 (32%) confessed that they aren’t actively retargeting visitors to their website, giving up the chance to market their businesses to users who have already engaged with their brand 

This was followed by an additional 29% who admitted their website isn’t fully mobile responsive, which can have an adverse impact on conversion rate as well as the overall user experience.

In addition to this, a further 22% said they were not actively optimising their Google My Business listing, which means they are missing an opportunity to gain more customers, particularly from users who are searching from within the immediate surrounding area. 

Admitting that they were aware that their site did not load quickly enough (19%) rounded off the list of the top five ways businesses are missing out on opportunities to improve their digital marketing performance. 

Gareth Hoyle, managing director at MarketingSignals.com comments: “The research shows how there are a number of missed opportunities for companies when it comes to their digital marketing activity, particularly with regard to organic performance. This is to some extent understandable as algorithms are regularly updating and it can be hard for business owners to keep up with the very latest developments. 

“However, missing out on opportunities to improve digital marketing performance can also be extremely harmful to an online businesses’ bottom line if they are not actioned quickly. Moreover, digital marketing techniques that were once understood and believed to be common practice a while ago can now lead to directly to search engine penalties. Therefore, it is extremely important that business leaders make more of a concentrated effort to keep abreast of the digital marketing activity their own company is undertaking, with the start of the year being the perfect time for this to take place.”

Marketing Signals offer a wide range of digital marketing services including paid search, paid social, digital PR and technical SEO. For more information on Marketing Signals please visit www.marketingsignals.com