Guest Post – Written by a Contributor
In business, marketing is key. Unfortunately, many business leaders make common mistakes that hinder rather than help their marketing endeavors. To ensure you get the right exposure, and don’t waste time or send the wrong messages, consider the following marketing mistakes and make every attempt to avoid them.
Marketing Mistake #1: Not optimizing your website for mobile users
Your business website is possibly your greatest marketing tool. It is the place to showcase your product, stay in touch with your customers, and highlight items of significant note to promote to site visitors. However, considering many customers will be using their mobile devices to make a purchase, the website needs to be optimized for those smaller screens. If it fails to display correctly, customers will be driven away (rather than attracted) to your business.
Marketing Mistake #2: Forgetting to capitalize on SEO
SEO is an effective digital marketing practice, placing your website further up search engine listings. Good practice includes link building (read more at link building tactic), ensuring your site is optimized for mobile (see above) and updating your website content on a regular basis. For beginners, SEO can seem complicated. However, there is a lot of information online to guide you through the process, so don’t ignore SEO altogether if you are in any way bewildered.
Marketing Mistake #3: Not building relationships with your customers
Your customers are the lifeblood of your business, and when you have finally secured them, you need to continue your marketing efforts to keep them coming back to you. In practice, this means keeping them informed about your latest news and products through social media and email, offering discounts and special offers to long-standing customers, and sending them the occasional freebie as a thank you for their loyalty. Remember too that your customers are an essential marketing tool in themselves, as their positive word of mouth will attract other potential customers to your business. Look after them and they will look after you.
Marketing Mistake #4: Not having a blog on your website
If you don’t have time to write a blog post for your website, hire a copywriter to do it for you. Why? Well, a blog can engage your readers, strengthen their relationship with your brand, and improve your SEO. The blog needs to be well-written, informative, relevant and fun to read. It’s part of your content marketing strategy, where you can share information about your product in a way that other parts of your website and marketing techniques cannot.
Marketing Mistake #5: Not using social media
Incorporated within digital marketing, the use of social media is near-essential in today’s society. There are very few people who don’t use Facebook, for example, as well as those other popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Instagram. Simply put, if you want to attract the highest number of customers possible, you need to be on at least one social platform. Not only is this free marketing (unless you pay for ads), but it’s an effective way of driving interest back to your business website.
Marketing Mistake #6: Not using video marketing
Video marketing can be used across Facebook, Vimeo, and the granddaddy of them all, YouTube. We live in a visual age, so people are more likely to watch a video than scroll through the pages of your blog (though you shouldn’t overlook the power of the written word). This isn’t your bid for five minutes of fame, however. Video marketing is all about showcasing your business, its products and its services. You can do this through tutorials, hands-on demonstrations, and customer reviews. You will need to communicate effectively – you will turn people away if you waffle on for ages – but get it right, and you will increase sales. Video marketing is also great for SEO purposes and is a guaranteed way to build customer relations, as people will see the face behind the business.
Marketing Mistake #7: Ignoring traditional practices
The buzzwords (as we have suggested) are digital marketing and video marketing. You would be foolish to completely disregard either. However, depending on your demographic, you should focus some of your marketing energies using traditional methods. So, don’t forget newspaper ads, flyers, and business cards. Don’t neglect industry magazines. Remember the art of face-to-face marketing where you promote your business with a good old-fashioned conversation and a smile. You need to consider the next point on this list, but don’t rule out these traditional methods in their entirety.
Marketing Mistake #8: Going over-budget
Part of your business planning needs to be budgeting. Naturally, this includes your marketing budget. Considering there are hundreds (if not more) ways to market your business, you could easily overspend in your attempts to reach the masses. Don’t! Make use of free marketing techniques. Only place ads in newspapers and magazines that are aimed at your demographic. Forget about marketing techniques that are irrelevant to your business, and unlikely to forge a positive ROI. Know how much you have to spend, and use the methods where you are likely to reach the greatest customer base for your business.
Marketing Mistake #9: Relying on your strengths
As a business leader, it’s unlikely you have time to focus on every aspect of your business. If marketing is taking up too much of your time, delegate the responsibility to somebody else. This could be somebody on your existing staff team or it may be a specialist marketing company. They will have the time and resources to make a better go of it than you, resulting in better quality and greater results.
Marketing Mistake #10: Not risk-assessing a publicity stunt
Done in the right way, a publicity stunt is an effective way to capture the interests of the public and the media. However, done in the wrong way, you may end up with one of these catastrophic fails, earning your business attention for all the wrong reasons. Always err on the side of caution, and risk-assess anything you are thinking of attempting. Ask for feedback too, before you put your plans into action. You may have egg on your face if you don’t, and that could damage your business reputation.
Final word
Effective marketing will boost your business, but you will undermine your efforts if you fall prey to one of the mistakes we mentioned. For the sake of your business, avoid these blunders, and focus your attention on marketing your business the right way.
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