If you’ve ever experienced marketing don’ts, you may know how marketing failure feels.
It feels like no one’s listening, let alone buying, what you have to offer. You can’t get ahead, and business is always slow. It feels a little hopeless - like you can’t work out what’s happening… or, in fact, why it’s not happening.
If you're serious about growing your business and continuously improving, it’s time to remove some of these don’ts from your list.
Don’t worry about your audience; simply work harder.
Knowing your audience is crucial for bringing them into your business fold. You have to be able to speak their language, understand their expectations and put yourself in their shoes.
The more they feel you understand them, the closer your relationship will be, and the better you can serve them. Carefully defining your market will assist you to make more informed decisions in almost every area of your business.
Only then can you use this information to set goals, plan budgets and chase opportunities.
Don’t plan anything. Just go with your gut feel and wing it.
Every business has one ultimate goal; to gain customers and convert leads into sales. You need effective marketing to do this consistently.
And although you can use millions of strategies and tactics, the starting point remains the same - you need to have a well-crafted marketing plan. Your plan defines your audience (see above) and your process for attracting and retaining them.
Without a marketing strategy, it’s like driving without a steering wheel.
A marketing plan is a boundary outlining the methods for the development and growth of your business. A great program will lead you through your marketing strategies, tactics, activities, costs, and expected results. It will be detailed enough to contain the business actions needed to accomplish pre-determined goals.
Don’t look at your competitors, and keep your eyes ahead.
Knowing who your competitors are and what they offer can ensure that you differentiate your products, services, and marketing. It will help you set your prices competitively and respond to rival marketing campaigns with your own initiatives.
Taking us back to the audience/customer knowledge and studying what competitors are doing will also give you a thorough insight into your customers’ expectations and choices.
Knowing your competitive landscape allows you to identify opportunities for your own business. If there’s a gap in what your competitor offers, can you maximise potential by filling it? Is there a portion of the market they don’t reach? Could that give you a different angle? What is your USP?
Don’t bother with a website. Just pop a sign-out front, and you'll be right.
If you’re a small business owner or just starting out, you may think there’s no benefit in having a website when you can promote it with signage or on social media. But at a base level, a website is like a 24-7 reception counter, never unattended.
Even if you've been in business for several decades or you heavily promote your brand on social media - if you want to grow, you need a website and preferably one that is professionally designed and developed.
More and more people are active online, researching to compare prices, products and services. If you don’t have a website, potential customers will go to competitors who do, especially if you are a home-based business without a brick-and-mortar address.
Having a website will not only provide the information they are looking for, but it will give your business credibility. It says, 'I am here, I mean business, and I am in it for the long haul'.
At Brand Warrior Communications, when it comes to failing at marketing, we don’t. And we don’t want you to either.
This list has been put together to guide you through the pitfalls of marketing - something as crucial to your business as the product or service you sell. Without a market (and therefore marketing), who will know where you are, what you do or how you can help?
At Brand Warrior Communications, we can design a plan for you that works for your unique business. Our business goal is to promote yours, and we want to help your business thrive.
Get in touch if you want to talk all things marketing - https://www.brandwarrior.com.au