Three Marketing Mistakes Businesses Make

Marketing is either something you’re fully on board with and understand to be a powerful tool or it’s something of a total mystery.

Whichever camp you fall into, you know that a decent marketing strategy is something that can take your business onwards and upwards to new levels. So why are so many companies still getting it so wrong?

Unless you employ a social media marketing company to carry out your marketing actions for you, chances are you’re going it alone. In this blog, we take a look at three common marketing mistakes businesses make and how you can avoid them.

It’s All About You

There’s an old-fashioned concept that marketing is all about selling yourself, your product, your brand name and so on. This is old-fashioned because it’s wrong. Marketing is all about your customer. 

No more talking about your business and trying to push your goods or services, but instead talking about what your customer needs, empathising with them and providing solutions. This is where we are with marketing and this is where you need to be. Less you, more them.

Social Media is Way Off

You’ve got a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even a Pinterest account. You’re hitting the socials hard every day with a tweet here and a pin there but what if you’ve got it wrong? Covering all the social media bases, can harm rather than help your marketing. In order to be at your most effective you must use your customer intelligence to focus in.

If your research shows the vast majority of your customers respond to you through Twitter then why are you wasting your time and resources on Instagram? Spend both better with a planned and targeted Twitter campaign and don’t waste it on other platforms.

Measuring Success

With powerful analytical tools, it’s possible to collect reams and reams of data from your marketing campaign from what time your direct emails are opened to the time spent on your website pages. While this is all interesting and can be helpful, not all of it is going to be relevant to you and can result in you drowning in data.

Instead think about the data that matters and the data that you can use to adapt and change your actions. It’s this data you need to take notice of. Some of the most useful sets you’ll come across are the statistics that give you more insight into who your customer is. You should always be striving to get to know them better. When are they most likely to open their emails or how likely are they to respond to a survey? Once you know your customer better you’ll be able to look at actions that work. No more wasting your efforts on shots in the dark but meaningful activity that delivers results.

Marketing done well is not easy. It can’t be done now and again but instead requires dedication and a great strategy. Commit to getting your marketing up to scratch and avoid some of these pitfalls.