What are the top 5 marketing mistakes small businesses make?

The last thing you want is to be trending on social media for bad marketing. And there have been plenty of marketing campaigns that have made us cringe over the years. Marketing for business owners is just as important as accurate bookkeeping and hiring the right personnel. So how do you know you are getting it right? Learning from others and their mistakes is a great start.

What are the top 5 marketing mistakes small businesses make

The top 5 mistakes entrepreneurs make when running a small business are:

1. Not establishing customer personas.
2. Winging the brand voice.
3. Not conducting competitor market research.
4. Not fully researching the target audience.
5. Executing their marketing willy-nilly style instead of using an organized, thematic editorial calendar.

Did you notice that all of these are around strategy? The up-front work required of a great marketing and communications strategy is so important. Without this solid foundation laid BEFORE you begin your marketing efforts, you might as well be building your business on sand.

What are some common mistakes made when starting a new business

There are many mistakes to avoid when starting a business, but marketing mistakes are at the top of our list because of its visibility with the customer. If you make a mistake on your balance sheet, you can fix that and your business reputation won’t suffer from it. Make a mistake in your marketing, however, and you could lose enough sales to go out of business. 

The most common mistake new businesses make is to start marketing without a strategy. Establishing a comprehensive marketing and communication strategy is non-negotiable.

Another common mistake is trying to do it all as the business owner or manager. Unless you manage a marketing business, you are likely not the expert in all things marketing. Sure, you can post to social media and send out an email, but are you doing it professionally, efficiently, and in a way that resonates with your audience? Be sure to seek the guidance you need if you plan to go the DIY route to ensure the very best possible marketing campaigns are representing your business.

What is one of the big mistakes that a company can make in developing its marketing strategy?

One of the most common mistakes new business owners make is to think they know their target audience. I’m sure you know them to some extent, but your knowledge is limited and probably biased. And if the information is kept in your head, no one else can access it in order to execute marketing messages that resonate and provoke action. 

What you know about your target audience is a great start. Write down their demographics, background information, interests, dislikes, motivations, challenges, goals, hobbies, buying, habits, and whatever else is relevant to you and your industry. Then, do your research, analyze the data, and synthesize what you learn to create as many customer personas as you need to direct your business decisions and marketing efforts towards reaching that target audience.

What is the common mistake that marketers make?

Not tracking data is also on the list of common mistakes business owners make. Throwing your marketing out there and hoping something sticks isn’t the best use of your time, money, or resources. 

Creating customer journeys is a great way to map out all of your communication touch points from the first time a potential customer hears about your business to becoming a paying customer. You can then label each area where you can track data and monitor it to see if the touchpoint is effectively moving the potential customer from point A to point B.

Marketing data points that you can track include:

• Email open and click rates
• Google Analytics Data (such as website views and click rates)
• Social media engagement metrics
• Sales metrics

Each month you should review all of the data along your customer journey map and identify places where adjustments need to be made to improve. For example, if you notice that your landing page for a product has a lot of views, but very low click throughs, that likely indicates that your message isn’t resonating enough with your target audience to take action. It’s time to adjust the message.