Common Marketing Mistakes

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing,” said Tom Fishburne, founder of Marketoonist. But, behind this seemingly effortless marketing, there’s a lot of hard work. Many business owners believe that good marketing requires substantial investments, but they choose to rely on in-informed marketing attempts believing that the quality of their product or service will speak for itself. Young companies usually operate on a shoestring budget, meaning that marketing isn’t exactly high on their agenda, and that’s usually the main reason for making some big mistakes. However, avoiding them won’t break the bank.

To be successful at any size, all it takes is a well-crafted strategy, some creativity, and a lot of persistence.

Here are six common marketing mistakes you should avoid

No prep

In order to lay a solid foundation for your marketing strategy, you need to do your homework first. A proper market and target audience analysis should be your first step. Building your buyer personas will help you address their problems and interests in a better and more meaningful manner. Before you start with any marketing, you should have three to five buyer personas recognized. When you have detailed information about people who are your prospective customers, it’s much easier to create compelling campaigns that will resonate with them. Besides getting to know your customers, it’s also essential to learn as much as possible about your competitors and their marketing strategies. Without preparation, your marketing efforts will be reduced to a series of blindfolded hit-and-miss attempts.

Taking your existing customers for granted

This is a serious mistake that could ruin your business. According to Gartner Group, 20% of your existing customers account for 80% of your future revenue. This Pareto principle variation isn’t the only stat that emphasizes the importance of zeroing in on customer retention. Another research study shows that if you increase your retention rate by just 5%, your profits will be increased by 25% to 95%. One of the ways to retain your customers is by boosting customer experience – you can feature them on social media, offer them discounts, reply to their comments, and send them birthday cards. Another effective tactic is to reward them for their loyalty by giving them all kinds of cool promotional items like printed mugs, T-shirts, branded notebooks, or any other free merchandise with your brand’s name and logo on it. Finally, never fail to deliver on your promise and always be consistent.

Lack of USP

Without a unique selling proposition, you’ll sink into obscurity together with thousands of similar businesses. All your marketing efforts have to be backed up with a clear and concise USP that will distinguish your business from your competitors. If you don’t emphasize what makes your product or service a better choice, your target audience won’t have a good reason to choose you. Make sure to give a promise that you will solve their problems in a competent and skillful manner, and insist on the distinctive benefits your product or service provides.

Underestimating the importance of SEO

Many businesses ignore SEO either because they don’t understand its power, or because it’s a time-consuming process that doesn’t produce the results instantly. By leveraging search engine optimization, you’ll drive quality traffic to your website, and, in turn, get more conversions. It’s worth mentioning that SEO leads score a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% close rate. Although this marketing practice can be pricey, it’s worth every cent you invest in it. To cut the long story short, SEO will boost your visibility and help you reach your target audience more effectively than other marketing practices.

Neglecting your content

If your blog isn’t updated with quality content on a regular basis or if you don’t have a blog at all, you definitely won’t be able to engage your audience. Producing superb content will bring lots of visitors to your website, grab their attention, initiate interaction, and encourage conversions. 61% of consumers state that they’re more likely to purchase from a company that provides custom content. This means that if you create valuable and relevant content which is useful to your target audience, you can count on positively influencing their purchasing decision. Your blog posts should be informative and entertaining, and they need to address some of the most common pain points that plague your potential customers and offer effective and efficient solutions. No wonder that how-tos and all kinds of guides are immensely popular, so tune into this trend and prosper.

Ignoring social media

OK, we can agree that social media platforms have their downsides, but when it comes to marketing they are indispensable. Almost 40% of the global population is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other networks. This means that if you create a profile on these social media platforms you will gain exposure and benefit by sharing your superb content. Whenever they want to find out more about a certain company, consumers look it up on social media, which is why it’s essential to maintain strong and consistent social media presence and keep up with an increasingly important role of social search.

These 6 mistakes can severely undermine your marketing strategy and damage your business, so do your best to prevent them.