In business, there sure are a lot of opportunities to screw things up. This happens acutely among marketing endeavors, often because business owners are understandably focused on their primary objectives. Marketing often comes second to serving clients or developing products, creating more opportunity for error.
Even though marketing is usually not a company’s main focus, it’s incredibly important to handle correctly. Your bottom line depends on it. Familiarize yourself with some of the most common marketing mistakes and keep your company from following their example.
#1 – Failing to Test
If you’re still wondering about what kinds of promotional materials work best among your client demographic, it’s because you’re not doing enough to learn more about what they want. Instead of guessing, why not do some testing?
The term for this kind of thing is called A/B testing (it’s got a lot of other catchy names out there too). Basically, you want to create two or more versions of your marketing channels to gather data on which ones are more effective with your client base. So, for example, you would create two versions of your webpage or email with a single varying element, like the title or subject line. Half of your visitors or recipients would see each version.
The point is, you want to find out if your marketing is hurting or helping your sales. A/B testing gives you a way to generate measurable data, like conversion rates or click-throughs, about what types of things are working best with your clients.
#2 – Letting a Hot Romance Go Cold
Sometimes, it’s easy to get tunnel vision on attracting new business and overlook the fact that a majority of your revenue stream actually comes from repeat customers. According to organizations like Small Business Trends and Marketing Metrics, “The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20 percent.” This means a core component of your marketing strategy should be focused on keeping your client relationships warm after a sale.
It’s also cheaper to keep a current customer than acquire a new one, maximizing your returns. Make sure your post-sale campaigns engage your customer through things like personalized offerings or tailored advertising based on their interactions with your company. Personalized email campaigns are an efficient means of targeting customers on an individual level and typically receive much better results than general mass emails.
#3 – Antisocial Behavior
If you don’t believe that social media can be a marketing asset for your company, then you’re probably unaware of how much money you’re losing by ignoring it.
As we mentioned in #2 on our list, repeat business typically makes up the bulk of a company’s revenue stream. Social media offers companies an unparalleled way to increase brand recognition, engage customers, and improve loyalty. On top of all that, it enables companies to keep the conversation going with their audience, presenting further opportunities to build future sales.
#4 – Ignoring Content
Taking elements from #3 a step further, the ways in which you interact with your customers can be heavily enhanced by the addition of quality content into the mix. Today’s customers have come to expect content from the companies they visit, and there are a lot of different ways to achieve this based on your business model.
For example, a manufacturer could create a behind-the-scenes video showing a little bit about how its products are made. Or, a hospital group could publish a health and wellness blog. Or, an ice cream shop could host a poll on their social media page asking customers to vote on which flavor of ice cream is their favorite. Whatever the case, developing quality content consistently will help your company build trust, awareness, and greater customer loyalty – leading back to that repeat business.
#5 – Wasting Your Website
Websites should come with an expiration date like some type of perishable good you’d find in a grocery store. Because when they go stale, they really stink.
Your website should be fresh, easy to use, and absolutely should incorporate a responsive design so it will function properly across any kind of device. Navigation should be clear and content should be relevant. The aesthetics should be consistent and the text should be error-free.
Somewhere around 97 percent of people search online for products and services before they set out to spend (Forbes). So, your website will be your company’s first impression in many cases. You’ve got to ask yourself, what kind of message is your website conveying? If your site looks old, out of date, and neglected, that’s going to be the impression a lot of people are going to take away about your business. That’d be like kicking all of your marketing strategies in the shins.
Best Avoided
If your company is committing one or more of these mistakes, then you’re likely blowing away some big bucks in the form of missed opportunities. It’s time to take a renewed look at your company’s approach to marketing and form strategies that are going to work for you, not against you like the items on this list. Remember, promoting what you do is just as important as doing those things.
