When creating a marketing plan for your small business, some strategies are going to work better than others. While making mistakes is a part of the learning process, what’s even better is learning from other’s mistakes, avoiding a waste of your own time, money, and resources altogether. In this blog post, we explore common marketing mistakes small business owners make and offer tips for better small business marketing strategies.
Why Is It Important to Learn From Marketing Mistakes?
Learning from marketing mistakes is important, because some marketing blunders can have a lasting negative impact on your small business. Here are a couple consequences of common marketing mistakes:
- Negative reputation: Sometimes, something that had good intentions can fall flat with your target audience or just seem downright tone deaf (anyone remember that infamous Pepsi ad?). When making marketing decisions, it’s important to consider different perspectives, especially when playing upon current social trends.
- Waste of resources: By putting all your eggs into one basket, you risk having a costly flop. In addition to wasting money on a marketing initiative that doesn’t work, you might also drain other resources, such as paid labor and precious time that you could spend on more profitable endeavors.
What Are Common Marketing Mistakes Small Business Owners Make?
Here are some of the most common marketing mistakes small business owners make and how you can avoid doing the same:
Not Conducting Enough Research
Before doing any marketing, you need to conduct marketing research. Your research should answer the following questions:
- Who is my target audience?
- What types of marketing is my target audience most receptive to?
- Social media, print ads, email, etc.
- What problems does my target audience experience?
- What are my target audience’s spending habits?
In order to gain insights into your target audience, you might conduct surveys, personal interviews, focus groups, and social listening. You want to gather as much information as possible to make savvy marketing decisions to the right audience. Don’t skimp out on this part of your marketing efforts, since this data will guide every single business decision you make, even beyond marketing.
Ignoring Their Competition
While you may think your products or services are unique and one of a kind, no matter what, you’re always going to have some form of competition. Before embarking on a marketing campaign, see what your competitors are doing. Sign up for their newsletters with a dummy email, follow them on social media, and see if you can get on their mailing list.
Of course, you don’t want to straight up copy your competitors. Instead, you want to see what they’re doing and how you can do it better or make more of an impact. You might even learn an idea of theirs was a failure, and you can avoid making the same mistake.
Giving Up Too Soon
Some marketing initiatives take awhile to pan out. As long as you’re not spending too much money on an initiative, you might need to give it some time to work. It’s easy to get discouraged when immediate results aren’t visible, but patience is key. Marketing often operates on a compounding effect—building brand awareness, nurturing relationships, and fostering trust all take time.
Consistency and optimization are essential. Rather than pulling the plug too early, track the right metrics, analyze performance, and tweak your approach as needed. Success may not be immediate, but persistence can lead to long-term growth and better returns.
Not Knowing When to Quit
On the flip side, there may be some marketing efforts that aren’t worth the time, money, and effort. That’s why it’s so important to track your marketing efforts, so you can make an educated decision on which tactics to either rework or abandon altogether. The key is having data to back up your marketing decisions.
Trying to Do Everything on Their Own
It’s okay if you aren’t an expert in all facets of marketing — most small business owners aren’t. Whether you need help with PPC advertising or someone to streamline your SEO efforts, there are plenty of professionals who can help you fill in the gaps with their expertise. When looking to hire someone, be sure to ask for some references, read customer reviews, and look at any portfolios or case studies to get an idea of their capabilities.
Need help avoiding common marketing mistakes? Hire a professional you can trust for all things SEO, website design, PPC, analytics, and more. Call Legit Click Media to get started at 920-214-4025.
