There’s no doubt that the world of marketing is a complex one. But, as there are more start-ups, SMEs, and large corporations competing for their chance in the limelight, it’s also more essential than it ever has been. If you want to break into the big leagues, you need a solid marketing strategy.
But marketing mistakes are as harmful as good marketing is beneficial. If you try to show the world who you are without a grasp on how to do it, you could end up ruining your brand image and wasting a lot of money. That’s why we’ve stepped in with our top marketing mistakes that you should avoid. Learn them now and don’t regret it later.
1. Not Understanding Your Audience
Your audience is at the heart of your marketing. Everything you do needs to appeal to this section of the population who are going to be interested in your product, and it needs to be targeted. A more manic spray-and-pray approach just isn’t going to cut it.
Luckily, there are many ways to both identify and understand your audience these days. For example, you can look at the kind of people following your competitors on social media (gender, age, location etc.) and instantly get a more specific view of who your marketing needs to attract.
There’s then a wealth of information available about people in these demographics, like their average salary, their hobbies, and when they’re most likely to check their emails. All this is information you need before you even think about a marketing strategy.
2. Not Looking Into Market Demands
Do you know that there’s a market for your product or service? No matter how much money you put into your marketing, if there isn’t a demand for what you’re trying to sell, you won’t ever make the money back. Before you begin, you need to research where your product is going to fit on the market and how many people are actively seeking it
Demand can shift over time, too. For example, at the moment British consumers are driving a demand for eco-friendly products that wasn’t there ten years ago, and that demand is only expected to grow. If you’re making a product that isn’t eco-friendly, how will demand shift for it over the next ten years?
3. Trying to Do Everything at Once
Marketing is multi-faceted. There are so many ways you can market your business, from traditional methods like billboards, leaflets, and good old-fashioned networking, to digital marketing methods such as social media ads, blogging, and SEO. One of the biggest marketing mistakes is thinking that you can and should do everything.
It may be tempting to build up a marketing strategy that incorporates all of these methods (or a lot of them, anyway) to cover the most bases. But that isn’t a good idea. If you spread your resources too thin, you’re unlikely to see a good return from any of your marketing channels.
Instead, pinpoint a few channels that are relevant to your target audience. It’s much better to become excellent at just three marketing methods than to become okay at ten.
4. Not Using Data to Make Decisions
One of the perks of the digital age is data. We now have reams upon reams of valuable data at our fingertips, and if you’re not using yours, then you’re making a mistake. You should be using all the wonderful statistics given to you to influence your marketing decisions. At a snapshot, here are some of the ways to utilise analytics for marketing:
- Look at whether posts with images or videos get more likes on social media
- Check how changes to your website affect traffic
- Understand customer trends and preferences
- Track your website conversions
That’s just a snippet of the sort of analytics you could be using to plan your next marketing moves.
5. Copy Your Competitors
There’s being influenced by others, and then there’s doing the same as everyone else. The first is perfectly acceptable, and the second is a big mistake. If your brand isn’t doing anything differently when marketing, you risk fading into the background. You need to set yourself apart and let your brands unique personality stand out.
You can certainly be inspired by what you see others doing, but always try to put your own spin on it.
6. Not Focusing on Conversion Rate Optimisation
So often in marketing, you can get hung up on a hundred different priorities. You want to grow your Instagram followers with social media marketing, try and rank number 1 on Google for a certain term, and encourage more people to sign-up for your newsletter.
These are all fantastic priorities, but there’s one you need to make sure you don’t forget: conversion rate optimisation – or CRO. This refers to how many people on your website are actually spending money with you, and it should be the overall focus of your strategy. Whilst you’re busy doing all the many things you need to do to grow your business, don’t forget CRO.
7. Not Running Split Tests
Split testing (or A/B testing) is a brilliant way to see if your marketing is actually working – at least where your website is concerned. It’s the practice of testing two different options on a site, like using a button for your call to action or simply linking text. With an A/B test, you try both versions to see which resonates better with your users.
If you change to a button and see an increase in how many people are clicking on it, you know which is best for your website. A lot of marketers and business owners do not run tests, but rather use their own interpretation about what they think works best, this is just one of a few marketing mistakes that need you to fix in order to run data-driven marketing campaigns.
7.5 Not Working With Professionals
Don’t push yourself too hard if you’re not a marketing professional. Marketing is tough to get right, especially if you’ve never had to do it before. If you’re really stuck and don’t think you have the skills to market your business to the world properly, it’s important you find someone who does.
At Got Legs Digital, we’ve been helping businesses across industries improve their marketing for many years. We know what marketing mistakes to avoid and how to help a business get ahead. Learn more about us to find out how we can help you, or get in touch with us today and let’s get the ball rolling.
