Marketing is essential when it comes to growing a small business, full stop. However, it’s important that your money is well-spent on marketing strategies that will yield the best results.
This blog will pinpoint six common marketing fails to avoid so you can ensure maximum marketing success and a thriving business.
1. Seeing Marketing as an Expense
If you view marketing as an expense, you need to reframe your thinking. Unlike an expense, which will depreciate, marketing is an investment that adds value to your small business and provides long-term results.
Start-ups with tight budgets, or established small businesses looking to cut costs, often reduce their marketing spend. However, marketing is the very thing that will push growth and opportunity.
Even if you’re scraping your coins together, adopt a mindset that is always focused on saving some pennies for marketing.
If you need financial advice and help developing an expense budget for your marketing efforts, you may benefit from speaking with small business accountants.
Small business accountants, such as those at POP Business, provide tailored accounting services focused on supporting small businesses.
“We aim to empower business owners by providing accurate and reliable financial information that is communicated in plain English on a proactive and regular basis,” said Patrick Sargent, chartered accountant and CEO at POP Business.
2. Having an Unwritten Marketing Plan
Does a written marketing strategy seem like something best left to the big businesses? It shouldn’t be!
Small businesses need a solid written marketing plan – on the page – just as much as the Apple and Amazon’s of the world. It’s proven: Having a documented marketing plan is more effective than having no written strategy.
A written marketing plan provides a defined path forward, holds you accountable, and highlights exactly where your expenditure will occur – covering the costs for everything from website building to social media advertising.
3. Not Knowing your Audience
If you don’t know your audience, even the best marketing strategy won’t be able to save your small business. And knowing your audience means really knowing them…
Even if you think you understand who your current customer is, or prospective customers are, you need to study the data to know for sure. Marketing to the masses is a sure-fire way of flushing your marketing money down the drain.
Marketing efforts should be tailored to your audience demographics, such as age, gender, etc., and you should know why they come to your business and what problem you solve for them.
Survey Monkey anyone?
4. Never Defining your Niche
In today’s day and age, it’s unlikely that your small business is the first of its kind. It’s probable that your small business has plenty of competition, and knowing your point of difference is key.
Carve out your niche and tell your customers exactly why they should purchase from your small business. If you aren’t sure what makes your small business unique, it’s unlikely your customer will know either.
Once this is well-established, use your marketing muscle to educate and tell your audience what sets your business apart from the rest, rather than just selling, selling, selling.
5. Not Fixing the Leaky Bucket
As the old marketing adage goes, it’s cheaper to patch the holes in your leaky bucket than it is to buy a new one.
In other words, acquiring new customers is more costly than retaining existing ones. While gaining new clients should always be a big goal, cross-selling or up-selling to retained clients should be a focus too.
Customer loyalty is something you want to encourage and nurture. A portion of your marketing budget should be allocated to customer retention, which will undoubtedly get you referrals too – a win, win.
6. Neglecting your Online Presence
If you think because you are a local small business that you don’t need a website, you are wrong. Customers are likely to look for your business online before they walk through your door.
According to the Local Marketing Institute, research shows that 72% of customers search for a product or service on digital sources first.
Thankfully, setting up a website these days is easy. There are many website building platforms, like Squarespace, available, or outsourcing options for the less technically-minded business owner.
Once you have your website up and running, you may wish to consider building up your backlinks with SEO write for us opportunities. This may help improve your website’s visibility and keyword rank in search engine results.
Understand The Value of Small Business Marketing
As a small business owner, it’s easy to get lost down the marketing rabbit hole, and knowing where to allocate your precious funds can be daunting.
Small business marketing is an essential part of success, and knowing the common marketing fails to avoid will ensure that your marketing money is well-spent and your marketing strategies will be as effective as possible.
