Marketing mistakes and how to avoid them
Marketing is essential to all businesses… why? Because it helps you reach and connect with your target audience, which in turn helps grow your business.
At Excelerate Marketing there is something we like to call Exceleration. Our definition… Succeeding and staying in motion. If Exceleration is 0, your business isn’t changing.
We are all about momentum but momentum in the right direction. Without creating a strategy, setting a budget, agreeing upon campaign objectives, regular analysis and targeting the correct audience then you’re not setting your business up for success.
Marketing in both the traditional and digital sense have become more enticing to explore as business owners start to see the impact of their marketing efforts and on both their brand and the bottom line. With the right support and tools, shortcutting the online grind has never been more achievable in a post Covid landscape.
One thing 2020 taught us is how easily consumer behaviour changes (shopping centre riots for toilet paper a not so glamorous example). According to a Mckinsey report, more than 75 percent of consumers switched to new brands during Covid. As SME’s ourselves we need to act and think with greater agility in how we adapt to consumer behavioural patterns and trends to ultimately achieve a seamless and streamlined buyer journey experience end to end.
Here are some critical marketing mistakes small businesses make, and how to avoid them.
Marketing Plan
Could you be the CEO who has recently realised you’re running the business and the marketing strategy… but wait, why you? And is there a plan, structure, goals? Not to worry you’ve taken the first step, acknowledging you need a PLAN!
A study by the Content Marketing Institute has reported that 27 percent of businesses that have a documented marketing strategy are more effective in all aspects of marketing than those who have not.
The purpose of the marketing plan is to provide your business a roadmap that clearly outlines the overall marketing goals, the strategies to deliver the goals, and the tools you will use to execute and measure how effective the business is against them.
In our opinion the biggest (and simplest) reason is to provide focus. The plan will demonstrate a considered and well thought through approach - demonstrating clear direction. Even if that direction is changed multiple times, you have forward momentum!
A Marketing Budget
A sound marketing budget is critical for the sustainability of your marketing efforts. In an article by Harvard Business Review the advice is to not to cut your budget in a recession but instead “change how you spend it”.
As a business owner you might be wondering if you can afford everything you you’re setting out to do. Have a look at the value per customer and determine what that initial enquiry or ‘lead’ cost needs to be. The truth is, without a clear marketing budget in place, as well as accurate tracking and conversion rate estimates, you don’t really know what is achievable within your business limits.
Writing out a budget can be a difficult process initially. The business for the time being might just have to estimate or base a budget on what they have spent in years past. Ultimately referring back to your business goals in the overall marketing plan is how you can streamline the budget.
Quantitative Analytics
Once your business has a marketing strategy in place paired with good budgeting practice, it’s fundamentally important to have a clear understanding of quantitative metrics.
This is specifically speaking in regards to SEO strategies for a business. If you’re a business owner who exclusively looks at only keyword rankings and the page views, you’re missing out on information that could better serve and optimise your online domain.
SEO metrics are not just about numbers, they convey how the user emotionally feels when interacting as a singular user on your website. A big mistake is that SME’s are ignoring the metrics and not being able to respond to change their online presence in a positive way to enrich the user experience. Even if you’re the next Steve Jobs, you will need to do more than go with your gut instinct. It’s also crucial to not focus on one metric alone, because it doesn’t accurately depict the truth.
Questions to ask yourself might be, ‘What entrance paths are taken by visitors?’ ‘How many visitors result in a conversion?’ ‘What is the ROI of your social media efforts?’. Tackle these questions with a structured approach.
Online target Audience and messaging
Understanding your audience’s needs, your unique value proposition, and brand messaging should be at the top of your list to get right.
Arguably the most critical part of an online marketing strategy is the messaging to the right audience. With deeper consumer insight, the answer to finding your business’s specific audience is achievable.
How exactly do we understand our audience in a digital context? In order to make sure you’re speaking to the right people, you need to be asking questions and concluding how your existing clients feels and behaves towards your brand.
We need to not only segment on demographic alone but attitudes and preferences, taking a look at their online interactions with your brand. What are the user’s motivations behind using their choice of social channels? Why are they purchasing item A but never item B?
When we get to a place of better understanding the audience a business serves, we can more effectively utilise brand messaging to be perceived as more authentic to our customers.
Consumers want brands they can feel loyal to and proud to be associated with, effectively helping business drive sales from a retainable consumer base, eventually giving business the freedom to invest and expand their marketing efforts.
If you feel as though you have fallen into or about to fall into one of these traps reach out to Excelerate Marketing at info@exceleratemarketing.com.au for an initial consultation.