Conducting any marketing activity involves a good deal of trial and error. The key is to find what works, and to maximize its effectiveness while maintaining the optimum ROI (Return on Investment). Fortunately, with the latest technology and data tracking functionality available, pinpointing what’s working and what’s not is easier than ever before.
Having said that, history sure has a way of repeating itself, and the marketing world is no different. Despite a seemingly abundant and endless ocean of marketing knowledge out there, many businesses continue to make the same mistakes. Listed below are a handful of common marketing blunders Small Business Owners are likely to commit.
- Not spending enough time defining your Target Audience and Media used to reach them.
In the modern marketing world the audience has multiple options when it comes to communicating and engaging with brands. As a result, an organization needs to know exactly who they are trying to reach and what channel to reach them through. Most organizations go through a lot of trouble to understand this basic concept. If you don’t know your audience and what channel they prefer, it’s unlikely your efforts are hitting its target. Believe it or now, just having enough firepower is not enough. In some cases you could just be trying to hit a fly with a machine gun. You could still score a hit, but would it be worth it? - Undermining the value of your Website
In an Internet driven world your website serves as the window to your business. While almost all organizations have websites, many do not actually understand the power and value a quality website holds. As considered by many people, your website is their first exposure to your organization and if it doesn’t appeal in the first impression, chances are that you may have lost a lot of potential customers. It is a common mistake made by small business owners not to focus much on their website and thus leave it poorly designed, difficult to navigate and with content that is not engaging enough. - Being Invisible or distant on the social media
In the past social media was merely an option, however in today’s world where marketing has shifted its horizon to the fast paced Internet, people are now gravitating towards social media. The problem is many small businesses don’t have a strong and consistent social media presence. Sometimes small businesses that do spend time to be on the social media, do not actively promote their cause, or do not add value to their social media handles. This is really a prodigal wastage of a readily available and cheap image building mechanism. It’s really simple, no matter what time or era we are in, a business has to go where people are, isn’t it? - Not giving your customers a way to interact online
The Internet is no longer just about gaining and consuming information. It’s about being part of a broad interaction. People want to share their thoughts and experiences. They want to tell acquaintances what they are buying and why they are buying. They want to be involved. Even in today’s transparent world too few organizations are providing customers with a platform for brand interaction. So what the companies need to do is, equip their users with a platform that can turn them into brand advocates.
Many small businesses make these blunders because they lack the necessary resources. If your business doesn’t have the expertise to get the most out of your marketing in-house, or if you are trying to look for outside help but you lack the budget to do so, then consider focusing on one or two key efforts and work to do them exceptionally well.
Like anything else, marketing takes practice and persistence to get it right. Use the knowledge and resources around you to maximize the effectiveness of your efforts. Take the steps necessary to avoid repeating these common marketing mistakes. We hope reading about them was helpful to you. Are there any other commonly seen mistakes or blunders that you have observed? Please feel free to share it with others in community!
