How do you avoid making marketing mistakes?
When it comes to marketing, business owners often shoot themselves in the foot.
Not literally, but figuratively.
That’s why we’ll talk about business marketing mistakes on this blog.
But why is it so essential to highlight this?
Simply because they are much more common than you think!
You see, business owners typically have big goals for their companies and want to achieve impressive results almost immediately.
And when they are not getting those immediate results, they start hesitating on what they are doing right, or wrong.
It’s important to remember that a great marketing strategy can’t be built overnight.
Moreover, executing an effective marketing strategy is a long-term commitment.
In this article, we break down some of the business marketing mistakes to avoid and examples that commonly sabotage business owners’ marketing efforts.
You’ll also learn what to do instead to achieve your short- and long-term marketing goals.
Are you ready?
What are the Most Common Business Marketing Mistakes?
1. Listening to the Wrong People
Have you ever posted a question on Facebook about how to fix your kitchen sink and received a dozen different responses?
How did it make you feel?
How did you know whom to choose the answer from?
In our experience, everyone wants to give their advice and offer a solution.
However, asking too many people — particularly those without much experience — will only leave you feeling confused and frustrated.
It’s helpful to get a second or third opinion on most things.
When it comes to your marketing strategy, make sure you ask the experts and not your best friend (unless your best friend also happens to be a marketing expert -Now that would be good news!) Get a second opinion!
Remember that just because Joe’s hot dog business is taking off doesn’t mean his marketing strategy will work for Donna’s ballet classes.
Your marketing strategy should be as unique as your company — and any true marketing expert will remind you of that.
2. Not Getting to Know Your Audience
When developing your marketing strategy, we both agree on the importance of listening to the right people.
But get this, no matter what kind of business you run, the most important people to listen to are your target audience, the people who will potentially buy your products or services.
Why does this matter?
The better acquainted you are with your audience, the easier it is to tailor your marketing materials and overall strategy to them.
Creating a precise marketing plan that takes your audience into account helps you achieve your goals (and achieve them faster).
How can you get to know your audience better?
Start by reviewing your website and social media analytics.
Find out the audience’s average age, gender, income level, location, etc.
You can also post polls on social media to learn more about their interests, the types of products or services they like the most, and the types of content that resonate the most with them.
Want to know the best part?
If you’re interested in developing a robust target audience, you can Download our Free Audience Persona Template here.
Or if you want faster results, you can talk to one of our marketing strategists and book a consultation.
3. Choosing the Wrong Social Media Platforms
We get it. Social Media is not for everyone.
Nevertheless, even if you’re not a huge social media fan yourself, there’s no denying that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are vital players in most business marketing strategies.
Business owners frequently make a few mistakes when promoting their brand on social media.
One of the first issues they face is posting their content on the wrong platform.
Let’s say most of your buyers are boycotting Facebook and strictly use Twitter now. If that’s the case, then you need to follow them there.
Rather than trying to convince them that they should come back to Facebook to view your content, meet them where they are and share your content on their preferred platform.
In our experience, this approach increases the likelihood that they’ll engage with your content and follow through with your call to action.
We could go on and on about the importance of social media and how to avoid marketing mistakes, but that’s not what this article is about.
If you want to learn more about why Social Media is important for your business, here is a great blog we have previously posted: How Social Media Can 10X Your B2B Business.
4. Not Using Social Media at All
It’s true.
Along with posting content on the wrong platforms, many business owners also make the mistake of not using social media at all (or, at least, not using it consistently).
Can you run a successful business without social media? Sure. Maybe.
As it turns out, this objective is much more challenging to accomplish in the digital age.
After all, according to Pew Research Center, over 70% of Americans use at least one social media platform.
You’re really not going to use that to your advantage?
5. Neglecting Your Website
It’s not only great to have a website promoting your business, but also important for your Digital Marketing Strategy.
However, it’s not enough to throw one up and hope for the best.
Website design and Digital Marketing are not “set it and forget it” activities.
You see, if you want to have better luck marketing your business and drawing in new customers, you need to pay attention to your website design and the user experience it provides.
Ideally, your website will be aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.
In other words, people should be able to find information quickly without having to click on a bunch of different pages or type a variety of terms into the website’s search bar.
That’s not all…
The following are some other critical elements of good web design that you should keep in mind:
- Readability: Do you use headings, bullet lists, and short paragraphs to help people scan your content and pick out the main message?
- Page load speed: The faster your website loads, the better. Load times of 3 seconds or more increase your bounce rate (the number of people who leave your website quickly after their initial visit) and hurt your search engine ranking.
- Mobile friendliness: Nearly 60 percent of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If people can’t easily access your website from a smartphone or tablet, they’ll click away and check out your competitors instead.
But wait, there’s more.
Identifying problems with your website design as a business owner can be tricky because you’re familiar with its layout and how it works.
In our experience, asking someone who has never visited your website to check it out can help you get a fresh perspective and find the weak points that need to be addressed.
I could discuss Web Design all day, but who has time to read so much?
We put this article together for you that dives deeper into the importance of Web Design and your SEO Ranking:
4 Reasons Why Your Web Design Affects Your SEO Ranking.
6. Overwhelming Your Audience
Whether you’re posting on social media or publishing blog content on your website, consistency is critical when it comes to promoting your business and engaging your audience.
At the same time, though, it’s possible to overdo it.
Why does this matter?
If you post too often — especially if all your content has a similar message or looks the same — people will start to feel overwhelmed and fatigued with your brand.
Overwhelming your audience is never a good idea.
If people start feeling frustrated by a brand that continually posts online or blows up their email inbox, they will take action that hurts your business.
For example, they might mute or unfollow you on social media or unsubscribe from your email list.
It gets worse!
An overwhelmed or fatigued audience will not be loyal to your brand, nor will they recommend it to their friends and family. In fact, the opposite is likely to happen.
Keeping your audience engaged and interested in your brand is key to the success of your content.
7. Failing to Track Results
You might be wondering, is getting into the nitty gritty of analytics that important? The short answer is yes.
Consistently tracking results from your business marketing strategy helps you understand what’s working and what needs improvement.
What does this mean for you? How do you start tracking results?
Pay attention to your website analytics, social media analytics, email analytics, etc.
Checking in regularly provides valuable insight and allows you to pick up patterns (positive and negative) sooner.
For example, if you notice that people consistently engage with your videos more than your infographics, you’ll know to focus more on video production in the future.
This saves you from wasting time and resources on info-graphics few people seem to engage with.
As it turns out, some business owners don’t track results regularly because they don’t know which metrics to monitor.
If this is the case for you, here are some essential ones to consider:
- Website Traffic
- Bounce Rate
- Page Views
- Engagement Rate
- Likes and Comments
- Click-through Rate
- Conversion Rate
These are just a few metrics of what you can track.
Pick a few metrics that matter most to your marketing goals.
Once you get comfortable monitoring those, you can add others into the mix.
Want to know the best part?
Tracking analytics nowadays can be pretty accessible.
Many Social Media Platform Analytics tools, such as Hootsuite and Later, give you extensive analytics reports.
Some platforms like Instagram offer analytics within the app where you can download additional data to help grow your marketing strategy.
Moreover, Google Analytics provides extensive reports on your website visits.
What’s the bottom line?
If you want to get involved in your analytics, you can easily do this, and we highly recommend that you do it to avoid marketing mistakes in your business.
8. Trying to Do Everything on Your Own
Do you know someone who can bake Crème Brulee and poached eggs while holding a phone to their ear and carrying a baby chimpanzee?
If you do, we want to meet them!
In general, most of us aren’t this talented.
You can do a lot independently but can’t do it all.
An effective marketing strategy — particularly one that yields long-term results and ongoing growth — requires a team.
Focus on what you do best as a business owner, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Don’t know where to start?
Hire a branding and marketing firm to guide you in the right direction.
We happen to know some people who know just what your business needs – wink wink!
Avoid Business Marketing Mistakes: Level Up Your Marketing Today
These are just a few tips we recommend you follow to avoid marketing mistakes.
From listening to the wrong people to trying to do everything on your own, many potential mistakes could be holding you back from achieving your marketing goals.
Remember that knowledge is power.
However, this is only the case if you use what you’ve learned.
There are plenty of options out there for marketing your business.
Do you need help deciding which ones are the best for you?
If so, start by booking a quick intro call with us!
During the call, our goal will be to learn more about your business, current marketing tactics, and your sales goals for this year. The goal will be to see if we would be a good fit to help you accomplish your sales goals.
If you are not ready for a call with us, start by downloading this FREE Marketing Action Plan.
It includes a detailed video that explains everything you need to know to improve your business marketing strategy!
Hope you found this article helpful.
We can’t wait to meet with you!
