As online competition intensifies and consumer habits evolve, keeping your digital marketing strategy airtight is more critical than ever.
A gap in your digital marketing strategy is like a hole in your ship–it can sink your business.
Yet, while these gaps may seem like setbacks, they also offer opportunities for innovation, improved marketing effectiveness and new solutions to better meet customer demands.
But how do you identify and use these market gaps to strengthen your digital presence?
In this blog, we unpack:
• 7 Common Gaps in Digital Marketing Strategies That Could Be Hurting Your Business
• 9 Tips on How To Spot Gaps in Your Digital Marketing Strategy
7 Common Gaps in Digital Marketing Strategies That Could Be Hurting Your Business
You’ve relied on the same strategies for who knows how long, and suddenly, out of the blue, they stop working.
Remember, digital marketing is a constantly evolving plane. If you’re not adjusting your strategy to keep up, you’re bound to hit a wall.
Here’s where you could be missing the mark:
1. Content Gap
What you think your audience wants to consume may not match what they’re actually interested in. One of the most common gaps in digital marketing is failing to create content that truly resonates with your audience.
This often happens when you don’t fully grasp their pain points, values or expectations, leading to content that fails to engage or convert.
2. Technology Gap
The tools you use to execute your digital marketing strategy are critical to your success. Yet, many businesses fail to invest in the latest technologies or optimize their tech stack. Leveraging the right tools, from AI integration to SEO algorithms, is crucial for staying competitive.
3. Data Gap
A lack of data can lead to poor targeting and weak messaging. Without a clear understanding of customer behavior and preferences, your marketing efforts will likely miss the mark, driving potential customers away.
4. Omnichannel Gap
Today’s consumers expect a seamless experience across all touchpoints, from social media to your website and mobile apps. Inconsistent branding and messaging across channels can result in a fragmented customer journey, leading to missed opportunities for engagement and conversions.
5. Customer Experience Gap
About 81% of customers prefer personalized experiences, and 70% expect businesses to know their purchase history and past interactions (Forbes). If you don’t provide this seamless experience, customers may turn to competitors who do.
6. Talent Gap
Strategic planning requires skills. Unfortunately, Many companies don’t have the budget or resources to hire dedicated specialists in every area of digital marketing, leading to a reliance on generalists who may not have the skillset to optimize each channel.
7. Vendor Gaps
Ensure your goals align properly when working with external vendors or agencies to manage your digital marketing campaigns. Vendor gaps often arise from poor communication, lack of transparency or misaligned expectations, all of which stall your growth.
So, how do you identify these gaps, and what can be done to address them? More on this in the next sections.
9 Tips on How To Spot Gaps in Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Now that you know what to look for, it’s time to talk strategy. Here are proven tools and tactics for spotting gaps in your marketing plan:
1. Conduct a Gap Analysis
A gap analysis compares the actual performance of your current strategy with your desired marketing goals or outcomes. You can spot areas of improvement like content, audience targeting or SEO.
Here’s a simple four-step process to begin your gap analysis:
Identify the Current Situation
Start by evaluating your current digital presence and defining the key metrics that matter most to your team. Each department should focus on the metrics that align with its goals. For example, the SEO team might focus on organic traffic and keyword rankings, while the social media team tracks engagement and follower growth.
Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-sensitive goals for your digital marketing efforts. For instance, you might aim to boost organic search traffic by 15% in the next quarter or increase conversion rates for PPC campaigns by 10%. S.M.A.R.T. goals keep your objectives clear and help you track progress.
Analyze Performance Gaps
Now, compare your current digital marketing performance with your goals. Are SEO efforts not driving traffic? Is ad targeting off or content not resonating with your audience? This step digs into your data to determine what’s causing the gap, whether it’s strategy, resources or execution.
Establish a Plan To Close Gaps
Use strategic planning to address the gaps you’ve identified. This could mean improving your online visibility, refining ad targeting, enhancing user experience or investing in new tools. Map out actionable steps to bring your goals within reach.
The more data points you have, the easier it is to run a gap analysis. However, even if you’re a new company with little to no data, strategic planning can help you start from scratch, set goals and build a roadmap to guide your growth.
2. Perform an Internal Marketing Audit
You might wonder, “Why conduct an internal audit when you’ve already done a gap analysis?”
A gap analysis identifies where current practices fall short of business goals, while an internal marketing audit checks if processes are following set standards and working effectively.
Internal audits are done regularly to ensure everything stays on track, whereas a gap analysis is typically performed when needed, depending on your organization’s specific goals.
More on internal audits vs gap analysis:
| Internal Marketing Audit | Gap Analysis | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Evaluates current processes and ensures they conform to standards. | Identifies strategic gaps and priorities for improvement. |
| Approach | Conducted by internal auditors through systematic reviews. | Uses comparative analysis and strategic planning tools. |
| Scope | Covers multiple functions and processes across the organization | Tailored to specific objectives or focus areas. |
| Outcome | Findings and recommendations for improvement | Provides a strategic plan or roadmap to close gaps |
Tools and Strategies for Conducting Internal Audits
• Use BI Tools: Business intelligence tools establish a standardized system for measuring and analyzing data from different departments. They also allow stakeholders to view the same data and collaborate on findings.
• Utilize Scorecards: A scorecard visually represents an organization’s key performance indicators (KPIs). It shows trends over time, allowing decision-makers to see whether processes improve.
• Conduct Website Audits: SEO audits and conversion optimization audits unearth gaps in user experience, technical issues and search performance that can help improve your website’s traffic and conversion rates.
• Implement Process Mapping: Process mapping helps identify inefficient or redundant processes that can be streamlined or eliminated. It also allows for a better understanding of how different methods are connected and how they contribute to overall goals.
• Analyze Consumer Behavior: Behavior analytics tools like session recording or heatmaps provide insights into how customers interact with your products or services. This information can be used to improve customer experience and identify any gaps in the sales funnel.
• Perform Risk Assessments: Developing a risk management plan can help prevent and control future problems, such as reputational harm, technology failures or compliance issues.
• Host Internal Hackathons: Make it fun and collaborative by hosting an internal hackathon to crowdsource ideas for process improvements. This also allows for cross-departmental collaboration.
3. Gather Customer Feedback
What better way to gauge marketing effectiveness than by going directly to the source? Customer feedback offers insights into what users want, how they behave and what they expect from brands.
The real challenge is figuring out how to gather genuine, honest customer feedback.
Tools and Strategies for Conducting Customer Feedback
• Conduct User Interviews: Interviews offer nuggets of insight that non-verbal communication can’t provide. You can analyze verbal and non-verbal responses and see how customers think about your products or services.
• Use Online Surveys: Online surveys are an effective way to reach a large number of customers quickly. This cost-effective method allows for anonymous feedback, encouraging more honest responses.
• Monitor Online Reviews: Review platforms like Google Business Profile (GBP), Yelp, Trustpilot or social media are hotbeds for customer feedback. Monitor these platforms regularly to see how customers perceive your brand.
• Track Your Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS is a widely used metric that measures customer satisfaction and loyalty. It asks customers to rate, on a scale of 1-10, the likelihood they would recommend your product or service to others.
• Host Focus Groups: Invite a small group of customers to discuss their experiences with your brand in person. This allows for more detailed feedback and encourages open dialogue between participants.
4. Monitor and Analyze Social Media Sentiment
Social media listening offers an unfiltered view of how customers feel about your brand, often revealing market gaps that traditional feedback methods like surveys or interviews may miss.
Tools and Strategies for Analyzing Social Media Sentiment
• Use Social Listening Tools: Tools like SproutSocial, BrandWatch and Hootsuite help monitor social media conversations by detecting positive, negative or neutral sentiment in posts and comments.
• Set Up Keyword Alerts: Receive alerts for mentions of your brand, products and industry terms on social media by setting up keyword tracking. This allows you to stay updated and respond quickly to relevant conversations.
• Monitor Hashtag Usage: Create branded hashtags and monitor their usage to track conversations around your brand. This also allows for easy tracking of user-generated content (UGC).
5. Conduct a Competitive Analysis
Knowing how your product or service compares to competitors is key to refining your unique value proposition, especially in crowded markets.
A competitor or competitive analysis allows you to identify and evaluate your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, marketing strategies and market share.
These overlooked aspects present an opportunity for your business to meet customer demands and strengthen your brand’s market position, whether through boosting ROI, increasing online visibility or expanding your brand globally.
Tools and Strategies for Conducting a Competitive Analysis
• Conduct a SWOT analysis: A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis identifies how your brand compares to rivals. You can use this information to capitalize on strengths and address weaknesses.
• Utilize Competitive Intelligence Tools: Use platforms like SEMrush and Ahrefs to discover competitor keywords and reveal content gaps.
• Check Patent and Trademark Databases: Use Google Patents or the USPTO to keep up with competitors’ innovations.
• Monitor Competitor Pricing: Use tools like PriceShape or Price2Spy to compare prices with competitors. This helps identify pricing gaps and experiment with different bundling or subscription options.
6. Evaluate Your Content
Quality content is key to attracting and retaining customers while boosting online visibility. The more relevant the content, the better your chances of improving SEO rankings and driving engagement.
However, when your content marketing efforts plateau, a content gap analysis can uncover issues like thin or duplicate content, outdated information, dead links and missed keyword opportunities.
Tools and Strategies for Auditing Your Content to Fill Market Gaps
• Create a Content Inventory: List your content and assess performance metrics like page views, engagement and conversions.
• Perform Keyword Research: Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find relevant industry keywords and integrate them into your content to increase organic traffic.
• Update Customer Personas: Regularly update customer personas to ensure your content meets the needs and preferences of your target audience.
• Analyze Consumer Data: Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to analyze performance metrics like website traffic, conversion rates and user behavior to identify top-performing content and gaps in your strategy.
• Conduct Competitor Analysis: Review competitors’ content topics, formats and channels to spot opportunities for improvement.
7. Track and Analyze Data
Data drives every aspect of digital marketing and supports smarter decision-making. By tracking key metrics like website traffic, bounce rate, conversion rate and social media engagement, you can assess marketing effectiveness and adjust your strategies to focus on what delivers the best results.
Tools and Strategies for Tracking and Analyzing Data
• Leverage Google Analytics: Use Google Analytics to track website traffic, user behavior, conversion optimization rates and other critical metrics.
• Use Social Media Analytics: Most social media platforms offer built-in analytics to track engagement and audience demographics.
• Track Email Marketing Metrics: Monitor open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates and unsubscribes to optimize your email marketing strategy.
• Implement UTM Tracking Codes: Use UTM parameters in your URLs to track the effectiveness of individual campaigns or channels in driving traffic and conversions.
• Segment Data by Customer Persona: Analyzing data based on customer personas allows for targeted analysis into specific audience segments.
8. Stay on Top of Market Trends
Capitalizing on industry trends means tuning into changing customer interests and using those insights to forecast future market opportunities.
Here’s how you can keep your finger on the pulse of industry trends:
• Use Trend-Tracking Tools: Tools like Google Trends track search behavior to help you stay on top of emerging topics before they go mainstream.
• Invest in AI Analytics: Leverage AI analytics tools to simulate trends based on historical data and anticipate market changes.
• Attend Industry Events: Join trade shows, webinars and conferences to discover new technologies and see competitors in action.
9. Follow Legislative Changes
Regulatory changes introduce new challenges or opportunities in customer engagement. Staying updated on digital marketing laws ensures compliance and adaptability to evolving customer needs.
Some advertising regulations to monitor:
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Governs data protection and privacy for individuals in the European Union.
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): Protects the data privacy rights of California residents and impacts how businesses collect and use personal information.
• CAN-SPAM Act: Regulates commercial email marketing, requiring businesses to include opt-out mechanisms and accurate sender information.
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): Governs the online collection of personal information from children under 13, requiring parental consent.
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Advertising Guidelines: Enforces truthful advertising practices, including disclosures for endorsements and sponsored content.
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): Limits telemarketing calls, texts and the use of prerecorded messages or autodialers without prior consent.
Bridge Gaps in Your Digital Marketing Strategy With Thrive
Identifying gaps in your strategy is only half the battle — the real work is closing them. Thrive Internet Marketing Agency offers full-service digital marketing solutions to help you stay ahead in the market.
Our team conducts market research, performs thorough audits and develops customized strategies to optimize your marketing efforts and drive business growth.
With the Thrive Score, we assess your digital presence and marketing effectiveness against 150 key factors, identifying gaps and providing actionable strategies tailored to your business goals.
Invest in strategies that deliver results — talk to our digital marketing experts today.
