Small businesses typically mean small marketing budgets, so it’s important to make every dollar count. However, small business owners have a lot on their plate, so making smart marketing decisions can sometimes fall to the bottom of their to-do lists. Whatever you do, be sure to avoid these five small business marketing mistakes:
Pass off the marketing.
Delegating marketing duties to someone with more experience is completely fine, but doing so without learning a thing about marketing yourself is a huge small business mistake. Of course you should leave marketing tasks to the experts if it’s in your budget, but how do you even know who the experts are if you don’t know a thing about it? Learn the basics on your own so you can tell when you are being fooled by who you hired, and what kind of results you should expect. After all, this is your business, so fight for it!
Not keeping an eye on competitors.
Keeping a watchful eye on how your competitors market themselves will give you invaluable knowledge on which channels you should use, what angle you should take with your campaigns, and what markets to target. Looking at competitors that have been in business longer than you have will be a good way to tell what’s working and what’s not. If you feel like your market is too small and you don’t have any direct competitors, look to similar companies in other markets nearby. The geography may be different, but the strategies will still work.
Reviews, what reviews?
To any business, but especially small businesses, online reviews are critical. This industry is ever-changing, with new platforms now including video reviews from customers. Your potential customers will research you, read what others wrote, and then decide whether or not to give you a try based on these reviews. If you, as a small business owner, choose not to look yourself up and see what’s out there, you’re losing out on a huge opportunity. Positive reviews should be promoted on your social media channels, and negative reviews should be addressed and handled right there on the review site so others see you’re a responsive and caring business owner.
Ignoring the results.
There’s no way to tell whether a channel or campaign was successful without looking at the results. Did it drive customers into your business? What was the return on the investment you spent? Without analyzing the performance of a marketing tactic, you’ll never know whether it’s financially worth doing it again. Many digital marketing campaigns, including those done on social media platforms, have analytics built into the tool for business owners to reference at any time, so there’s really no excuse to not look at results!
Putting all your time into one channel.
So you’ve become a Facebook expert…great! That doesn’t mean you should ignore every other marketing channel and focus all of your time and energy on Facebook. Every channel is vital to your business’s success, but a truly effective marketing campaign integrates blogging, social media, press releases and general advertising all together. Diversify your marketing efforts to reach a larger audience and get your business in front of the right people.
Do you have any marketing success stories for your small business? Share your marketing wins in the comments below!
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