Pirela Creative Solutions

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Marketing is critical to the success of every business, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard businesses complaining about attempting marketing tactics that don’t work. It may be true that a particular or given strategy is not suited for this specific industry or audience, possibly this is why a high percentage of small businesses fail. In my experience working with small businesses the tactic is not to blame, is the execution of it. In reality, a lot of small businesses make the same mistakes many times due to lack of understanding of how marketing actually works. To help you to avoid and conquer your next marketing campaign below you have some of the most common marketing mistakes that small businesses make:

Overlooking a marketing plan

Most small companies are trying to sell without first creating a marketing plan. Why marketing plan? Because it’s the starting point of your business and it helps to design your product or service, identify target audience; provide a roadmap and tools to ensure you are heading towards your final destination. But most importantly, a marketing plan give the specific details needed to expand your customer base, increase visibility and provide quantifiable tactics to measure your return on investment (ROI).

No measuring campaign effectiveness

There are many different marketing platforms and ways to market your small business. Having said that, it is crucial that you take time to measure the effectiveness of your different marketing campaigns. You must understand what is working and what is not for your business so that you can be extremely effective.

Lack of communication with customers

After spending valuable time getting the word out about what your product or service using social media, spreading business through referrals, and offline word of mouth to get new customers, make sure to keep constant communication. However, don’t ignore current customers, request their feedback, listen to their comment and suggestions, and provide them with a valuable long-term relationship. Focus on keeping new customers happy but take care of your existing client base for more business. If you want to stay in business and grow, keep your customers happy and turn existing ones into lifetime advocates. This is the key to market your business effectively.

Stop selling on social media sites

Don’t jump into social media to sell products or services. The intention to make a sale will drive people away. Instead, try to help and do what’s best for your follower or fans. Social media is about getting to know your audience and most importantly listen what they have to say about your brand. People are looking to connect with others, not to buy. Check out this post for more information on how your company can be more social.

Marketing to the wrong target audience

When it comes to sales and marketing you can’t be everything to everyone. Narrowing target audience can increase the power of brand’s appeal. This is why identifying your target audience and choosing the suitable marketing techniques to reach potential customers is vital to your success. If you are targeting and selling kid’s products, be kid-centric with your marketing, advertising, and PR campaigns.

Writing ineffectual headlines

Think about magazines at the grocery checkout: the headlines grab our attention because they shout out over the top news. When you write an email message or press release, you must create an infectious headline. Research indicates that your headline is the most important part of your ad. It’s definitely essential that you draw your prospective customer into your ad and keep them interested in what your product or service is all about.

Confusing call-to-action

I can’t stress enough the importance of a compelling call-to-action that can turn visitors into qualified leads. Every time you create a specific marketing strategy, you want to direct potential customers to take a specific action, don’t confuse your visitors. This action can be various types of offers to generate the best conversion rates. If you fail to tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do, they won’t do anything. Take them and show them what they need to do next to complete the sales process.

Keeping consistent marketing message is the key

In today’s competitive market you need to communicate a key message(s) about your brand that is quick and reverberate. Make sure your message and images are consistent. The last thing you want is to puzzle a potential customer by losing focus on what is really important. Latest research suggests that on average consumers are exposed to more than 3,000 marketing messages every day, your customers will need to see your marketing message between seven and twelve times before they even notice it. That means you can never rely in one message; instead, you need to send frequent messages over and over. Find the appropriate channel to hand over your message and then develop an ongoing relationship with your customers.

Understanding what marketing tactics are working and which ones are not for your business can give you the right tools to map out a highly effective marketing strategy. You need to remember that is a lot of competition out there, and only by pouting out what make your business better and more useful than other businesses will make your brand stand out from the crowd and will help you to get more customers.

Alirio Pirela is Founder of Pirela Creative Solutions, Creative, Love Analytics, Blogger, Designer, Art Director and Content Marketing Strategist working as a Community Manager for several small businesses, providing tools and advice for social pros and business owners. @aliriop

Post filed under Advertising, Facebook, Inbound Marketing, Marketing, marketing strategy, Metrics, Small Business, social media, Twitter and tagged Marketing Mistakes, Marketing Plan, Marketing tactics.