As a small business ourselves, we know how hard you work to stay afloat. Mistakes are inevitable whether you’re running a one (wo)man show or a whole marketing department. From a typo on your latest flyer to your website crashing after an update, turn these mistakes into lessons learned!
To help you avoid mistakes and put you on the fast track to learning, we’ve compiled the five most common mistakes we see small businesses making.
You Haven’t Defined Your Target Market
Taking the time to sit down and think about your target market feels more painful than frantically running through your daily list of to-dos. You know your business is not for everyone, so what’s the point of defining your target market?
Defining Your Target Market Helps:
- Align Your Business Services To Attract More Customers
- Reduce Marketing Expense To Undesirable Customers
- Create Marketing Communication That Resonates Best With Your Clients
- Engage Your Customers By Speaking To Their Goals & Challenges
For most small businesses, we recommend you focus on defining 3-6 personas. Here you’ll outline their demographics, roles, goals, and challenges. Once defined, base your marketing strategy and every piece of content you create on these personas. Learn how to identify your personas here.
Your Online Presence Is Weak
It’s hard to avoid the fact that businesses are online, and digital marketing is helping them thrive. We see small businesses being beaten out by their competition all too often, simply because of their weak online presence.
Improving Your Online Presence Helps:
- Your Customers Find You
- Communicate Your Products & Services Effectively
- Position your Business To Be A Resource
- Engage Your Community
Now, don’t confuse this with “being everywhere.” You don’t have to be on every social media platform to improve your presence. Using the target market you’ve defined, strategically place your business in directories, social media channels, and begin partnerships that make sense. A strong presence is more about consistency and engagement than being spread too thin.
You’re Not Measuring Your Marketing Efforts
How do you know your marketing efforts are working if you don’t measure them? Constantly monitoring your channels and campaigns can help you adjust your budget and message to stay top of mind.
Measuring Your Marketing Metrics Helps:
- Adjust Your Messaging To Stay On Target
- Understand Your Target Market’s Needs
- Create Real-Time Data, For Fast Decisions
- Create A Better Marketing ROI
Measuring marketing can feel a little overwhelming with each channel hosting its own set of metrics and terminology. First, define your business goals, then identify what KPIs (key performance indicators) allow you to reach your goals. If you’re a brand new business, that could mean driving people to your website, which in turn can be measured by website sessions. If you’re well established and have recently launched a new email marketing sequence, measure open rates and click-throughs. If you’re still unsure what metrics to consider, learn how to measure your marketing metrics here.
You Undervalue Your Current Customers
We can feel you cringing from here as you think to yourself, “I don’t do this. I tell my current clients thank you all the time”. That’s probably true, but do you ask for their feedback, exceed their expectations, offer additional solutions, and respond to them promptly?
Valuing Your Current Customers Can Help:
- Grow Your Business By Word Of Mouth
- Build Brand Loyalty
- Improve Your Services With Feedback
- Save Money With Customer Retention
While your marketing strategy should balance gaining new customers and retaining your existing ones, new customers can cost seven times more to acquire! Delighting your current customers will grow your business more efficiently while building a deeper connection for life-long brand loyalty!
You Refuse To Adapt To Digital Marketing
Marketing has changed dramatically over the past several years. If you’re still looking at your P&L statement and thinking about what a large expense marketing is, it’s time to change. Digital marketing is an investment that helps improve customer experience and business performance.
Adapting To Digital Marketing Can Help:
- Reach Your Target Market
- Use Reporting For Decisions Instead of Intuition
- Build Trust & Industry Authority
- Improve Your Online Presence
Still not sure digital marketing is right for you? 75% of marketers are reporting on how their campaigns directly influence revenue. Making that digital leap opens your business up to a whole new world of possibilities, not only impacting you but also improving the experience of your next potential customer.
Avoid These Marketing Mistakes!
Did one (or maybe more) of these mistakes resonate with you? It’s ok! We rounded up these common marketing mistakes because we see a lot of clients making them – you’re not alone!
Now, don’t rush off and try to tackle them all at once. Pick an area that you feel you can make some improvement and see the most impact. The success of one small accomplishment will not only provide results for your business but motivation for your team to keep moving forward. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by where to start first, consider reaching out for a marketing audit. We’ll review your digital marketing efforts, their performance and put together a plan of action we can tackle together. From mistakes to lessons learned, your small business will grow!
