If you plan on starting a small business or are currently running one, how to market your products or services is no doubt a top concern. After all, without some form of marketing, it would be difficult to get the word out that you are open for business! Many business owners, however, jump right into this game of marketing without having a proper marketing strategy or marketing plan.
The danger of doing ad hoc marketing typically results in wasted money and time. It’s also extremely frustrating to business owners when they don’t see any results and impact on their bottom line. With a proper marketing strategy in place, there’s now a goal, measures of success, a budget to stay within and a carefully thought out implementation plan and schedule.
Beyond not having a marketing strategy in place, business owners new to marketing also need to avoid the following mistakes:
Having an Unprofessional Image
There’s an old saying that goes “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” BUT PEOPLE DO! Consumers are inundated with choices. Businesses have a very small window of opportunity to make an impression. As a first step to success, you need to put your best foot forward by looking professional. These efforts can be as simple as having an appealing, appropriate logo and proper business card, no typos in your brochure and a functional website.
Hidden or Missing Important Contact Information
If you’d like people to buy from you, make the process easy. If your potential customers have to go to the distance just to find out where you’re located, they will not bother. Unless you offer something no one else does, it’s simply easier for them to find the next competitor than waste their energy digging through your marketing materials. Inaccessible information knocks off a few points on your professionalism as well.
Spreading Your Marketing Dollars Too Thinly
New and small businesses typically have a limited budget towards marketing. This reality is then even more a reason to use your resources wisely. Instead of taking on more than 10 marketing tactics from social media to trade shows to newspaper advertising, focus on just a handful of media, use them consistently and frequently, and build a solid follow up and tracking strategy around these tactics so you know how successful they are.
Even though the details of a marketing strategy are not discussed in this particular post, we have written about the importance of a marketing plan in the past. In addition to having a solid marketing strategy before you set out, use common sense and simply think from your customers’ perspectives and market accordingly.
