Sometimes a bit of trial and error is necessary when marketing. That said, there are some fundamental mistakes that should be avoided if you want to have any success at all. Here are a few massive marketing mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.
Doing no market research
Market research can help you to understand your key consumer and their needs, helping you to come up with more focused marketing strategies. Without doing any market research, you may as well be relying on guesswork. Market research could include running surveys, reading customer reviews, using analytics, studying your competitors and reading various marketing studies. There are market research companies that you can use if you don’t feel you have the time for this such as ABA research.
Attempting it all yourself
Doing your own marketing can save you a lot of money in most cases. However, it’s unwise to attempt every marketing task yourself. Some marketing tasks can be time-consuming and may require a lot of attention to detail such as event marketing – hiring professional help from the likes of ADM Productions live event production companies can be sensible. There are also marketing strategies such as SEO and graphic design which may require specialist expertise.
Having no USP
USP stands for ‘Unique Selling Point’ and is essential to any brand. Without anything unique about your brand, there’s no reason for consumers to choose you over your competitors. By analysing your competitors, you can find something that they’re not offering and make this your USP. This does involve thinking outside the box.
Focusing solely on new customers
Another common mistake can be focusing solely on new customers and ignoring your return customers. However, most companies rely on a steady stream of return customers as much as they rely on attracting new customers. Providing good service is one way to attract return customers, however you can also use marketing strategies such as loyalty discounts and signing existing customers up to mailing lists.
Not marketing online and offline
The most successful companies’ market both offline and online. May consumers now use the web to discover new business – even if you’re a local business, it pays to have a website and social media. Similarly, almost all businesses can still benefit from offline marketing – the likes of event marketing and branded merchandise can appeal to people senses beyond hearing and sight, giving people a more physical experience. If you’re not digitally savvy, you can always hire a digital marketing company such as Visual Soft digital marketing to handle the fundamentals for you. Similarly, if you don’t feel comfortable hosting events and designing flyers, there are marketing companies that can do this for you.