Did you know marketing the wrong way can cost your business? Doing it wrong might not only lose you lots of dollars but the success of your business itself. Read on to learn the 4 costly marketing mistakes so you can avoid them.
Mistake 1: You Don’t Market Your Business At All
Although this might seem like common sense, it most certainly is not common practice. You would be surprised at how many businesses do not invest any of their budget into marketing. Because they don’t market, they struggle year after year and never seem to get ahead.
Marketing can launch your business to another level. By targeting the people who would be interested in buying your product or utilizing your service, you can reach them where they are. If you’re not currently marketing your business, now is a perfect chance to take action.
As a business looks at their marketing options, they must evaluate the best tools to reach their targeted audience. In our digital age, there are so many options when it comes to advertising and marketing your business. You can use the traditional TV, radio, print, and billboards ads to get results. There are also digital options like blogging, social media, and PPC ad campaigns. Digital marketing can be more cost effective but also runs the risk of not reaching the right people.
Mistake 2: You Don’t Do Market Research
No matter what form of marketing you decide to pursue for your business, you need to do the due-diligence research. If businesses don’t know who they are targeting and who actually purchases their products, they can waste a lot of money on a marketing campaign that reaches a lot of the wrong people.
A great place to start when you want to discover your target market is by looking at the US Census results. You’ll find specific information categorized by state, city, age, business, geographic and much more. Data is relevant as of 2012.
For those of you who are more digitally atuned, there are two resources that can help you do your research. If you have a website equipped with Google Analytics, you already have a tool ready for discovery. This resource will provide you in-depth information about who visits your site and for how long. If Google Analytics or an equivalent software isn’t installed on your website, you’re making a costly marketing mistake. Facebook Insights will give you data about who interacts with your business Facebook page. It’s free and all you need is to have 30 people like your page.
Mistake 3: You Don’t Diversify Your Marketing
If you put all your marketing eggs into one basket, you are at risk of making a costly mistake. Even if you are a huge fan of Facebook, be wary of using it as your only marketing tool. Different social media channels and marketing tools can help you reach different segments of your target market. The other tools out there like blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Adwords can market your business to more people.
If you have fallen into the one-stop-shop marketing trap, it’s time to diversity your strategy. Go back to your market research and come up with a plan on how you can engage more of your audience. Perhaps, an informational blog could reach people looking for insights into your industry. Perhaps, a LinkedIn business profile would give you more authority and respect in your field. The opportunities are endless and it’s important to utilize the tools that can give you a bigger piece of your target-audience pie.
Mistake 4: You Don’t Build Hype Before a Launch
Launching a new product or service is cause for celebration. You’ve worked hard and it’s finally time to unveil it to your audience. Launching something new in the marketplace is a perfect opportunity for you to market yourself. Whether it’s a new product or an updated website, don’t make the mistake of letting the launch go unheard.
As you prepare to launch your next big thing, start telling people about it. Set a launch date and make sure everyone involved knows about it. If you are feeling so bold, start selling your product before it has launched. Not only will you target the people who like to get things first, you’ll also be guaranteed some revenue. Pre-sale discounts and other incentives are a great way to build hype around your next launch so take advantage of this simple marketing technique.
The better you market your business, the more customers you will obtain and the higher revenue you will gain. Everyone makes mistakes. But now that you’ve read about these 4 costly marketing mistakes, you know better so take action today to make sure you steer clear. Contact us.
