Marketing is the most difficult part of running a business. It is not the only thing, but if it fails in this sense the marketing could be difficult and the proof is that for many traders this is very difficult to do. The way to solve it is by planning and executing it, as well as making many mistakes along the way that will help us learn and improve our marketing experience.
However, we can begin by mentioning what are some of the most common mistakes that business owners usually make when they start marketing, and thus try to avoid them.
Not having a marketing plan
We tend to believe that it is exclusively for large companies, but it is not and even, it is probably more necessary in small ventures. Taking a time to plan all year will not be a waste of time, although we may not believe it a priori.
Not knowing our target audience
Who do we want to offer our products or services to? All companies have a certain social sector and at that point we must direct ourselves to be successful. Knowing about it will allow us to know in advance what advertising or marketing campaign we should do.
How do we know our target audience? By asking us some questions like:
- What is the income of the households to which I must direct that can buy my product or service?
- Where will they look for what I offer? Only online or in a physical store?
- Do they work outside the home or at home?
- What is your job profile?
If we sit down one day to plan this type of questions, we can take many more that will serve to guide us definitively towards our sector and thus reduce the margin of error in our marketing campaigns.
Who is responsible for marketing?
In small businesses, you usually own the business but if you do not have time or lack marketing skills, it is best to think about hiring someone to take you. Yes, we believe it will not be very useful or it will be a waste of money but as we discussed in the previous point, we must plan at least once a year and stick to the plan.
Do not track marketing results
We set up a campaign and we started to execute it but is it being effective? How do we measure it? It will depend on the tools we are using, but some suggestions are:
- Google Analytics for online marketing and tracking of results in our web pages.
- Using unique telephone numbers for the campaigns that require it, so we can keep the file of incoming calls received.
- Use specific coupon codes
- Offer specific advertising per campaign.
Inconsistent brand
It is not a minor detail although it usually goes unnoticed. If we want to strengthen the brand and at the same time make it remembered by users, it must be consistent in all areas of our business, including business cards, letterhead, invoice, web pages, blogs and everything we develop that requires a presentation.
Diffuse communication and bad spelling and grammar
We must make our business look professional and have errors of this style makes users distrust. It is not enough just to use correctors online or that of Word itself, because they also tend to make some mistake, but we must review each of the pieces once completed, including invoices, budgets and emails.
