When it comes to digital marketing and social media, few terms are more used or misunderstood than “ignore” and “don’t ignore.” From bloggers ignoring SEO to social media personalities ignoring their audience, here’s a closer look at what this phrase means and why you should avoid using it.
What Does It Mean To Ignore Online Marketing?
When someone says they’re “ignoring” digital marketing, what they usually mean is that they aren’t paying attention to it. In other words, they haven’t heard of it or don’t consider it a priority. This can be a bit confusing because, in practice, ignoring something means opposing or contradicting it. For example, if you’re trying to grow your blog, you might want to ignore SEO because you don’t want to have your content messed with by SEO algorithms. This is why you should never “ignore” SEO—you always need to be conscious of what is going on with your content’s SEO.
Why Should You Avoid Using “Ignore” When Talking About Digital Marketing?
While it might be tempting to use “ignore” when talking about digital marketing and social media, this is a terrible idea. Just because someone hasn’t heard of or considered something doesn’t mean it’s not important or useful. In fact, ignoring digital marketing can actually harm your business. Here are some reasons:
Your Business Will Suffer
The most obvious reason for avoiding using “ignore” when talking about digital marketing is that doing so can actually hurt your business. If you’re not paying attention to SEO, for example, you’ll likely fall victim to keyword stuffing—which might result in your content being banned from search engines. This can damage your business’ internet reputation and damage your ability to find new customers. It can also make it harder for people to find your content when they are looking for it.
More Opportunities
Another danger of ignoring internet marketing is that you’re limiting your business’ opportunities. A lot of people think that SEO, paid advertising, and social media are all part of one big mix, but they’re not. These are all different tools for different opportunities. If you don’t use paid advertising or rely on social media alone for your business, you’re losing out on a lot of potential customers. Instead of ignoring those tools, you should be investing in them and using all of them to their fullest capabilities.
More Focus On What’s Important
One of the biggest problems with ignoring internet marketing is that it can cause you to focus on what’s important to you. If your top priority is growing your blog, for example, you might want to put all of your efforts into becoming a successful blogger. This can lead you to completely disregard other aspects of marketing, such as SEO and social media. The problem with this is that, oftentimes, these other aspects can be just as (if not more) important than what you’re focusing on. If you want to grow your business, you need to be aware of all of its aspects—including those outside of your control, like SEO and social media.
More Focus On What You Can Control
Ignoring certain aspects of marketing can also cause you to focus on what you can control. If you’re struggling with getting your content discovered online, you might decide to try and boost your SEO by changing the wording of your content. This might seem like a good idea in theory, but it can actually hurt your business in the long run. If you’re ignoring the fact that you’re not using the right keywords, you’re setting yourself up for unnecessary struggles down the line. Instead of trying to control something that you can’t, like SEO, you should be focusing on what you can control—your content and what you’re doing with social media.
More Focus On What You Learn
When someone says they’re “ignoring” certain aspects of digital marketing, what they usually mean is that they are focusing on what they learn. For example, if someone is new to the field and looking for ways to improve, they might want to focus on what they learn from experts instead of from textbooks. Just because someone hasn’t seen something or heard of it doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable or useful. You should try to do the same—learn from the experts and what is most valuable to your specific situation.
Keep Your Plans Flexible
Another important thing to keep in mind when working with “ignored” aspects of marketing is that your plans should be flexible. If you make the same plan every week and try to stick to it regardless of what happens, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You should always be prepared to change your approach, but you also shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. You never know what might work best for your situation, so you should always be open to change.
To wrap things up, using the words “ignore” or “don’t ignore” when talking about certain aspects of digital marketing can be harmful to your business. This is because they generally mean the opposite of what you’re trying to do—pay attention to something or someone, and consider them important. Instead, you should be using words like “focus” or “concentrate” when talking about these aspects of marketing. When used correctly, these words can help you better understand and explain what you’re doing, which might help someone understand your business better and consider you for their future marketing efforts. Even better, your customers will appreciate your attention to detail—especially since you’re the expert in your field and know what you’re doing.