Ah marketing, the ever important yet ever elusive pursuit of putting your brand out there in the hopes it lands in the lap of the perfect customer. The reality is, it’s a game of darts in the dark. You’re throwing at a target you can’t always see clearly and when you miss or hit a bullseye, you don’t always get clear feedback on what worked and what didn’t.
With that in mind, there are definitely ways you can improve your marketing successes and it starts with evaluating your current approach to see if you’re making any of these mistakes today:
1. No Marketing Strategy
If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know if you’ve gotten there?
This might seem obvious but it’s pretty easy to start “marketing” with no strategy at all. You start creating collateral, posting on social media, buying ads, etc. but it is pretty tricky for you to develop a marketing strategy if you do not take the time to think about your brand and what you want to achieve.
If you haven’t taken the time, sit down and formalize an approach to your marketing starting with the end goal of how people perceive your brand, learn about it, then take up the call to action you want them to take. Then review your current marketing efforts to see if those actually fit into your goal. If something you’re doing doesn’t and it’s not yielding results, consider shelving it and diverting that energy to the marketing approach that aligns with your strategy.
2. Always Going for Big Numbers
It is good to aim for big numbers, but you have to remember it’s a slow and steady pursuit that never really ends. Persistence is a big part of marketing, it’s why we see so many ads for the same thing over and over again. Don’t expect slam dunks with campaigns or postings, occasionally you’ll hit something that resonates with your audience and you can replicate it but for the most part it’s about being consistent and seeing progress over time.
3. Settling for One Platform
There are plenty of marketing platforms to choose from. If you are not satisfied with the results you are receiving from one platform, don’t be afraid to explore other options. You will be better off trying multiple platforms instead of being obsessed with one. This is where you have to learn to balance that consistency and persistence with being data driven. It’s the only way to remove emotion from the equation. Knowing when to step away from a platform or keep going/pivoting your approach is unknown but allow all options to be on the table for you and make sure you’re not staying in too long or too short.
4. Not Understanding Your Customers
Here’s another one we see skipped quite often. You may know your customers but have you taken the time to document who they are and what motivates them? Without this, you can’t adjust as you learn more about them. Having this information may help you make some of the decisions from the last two tips; you may find a platform you thought would be great doesn’t attract your audience which is why you’re performing poorly there or more commonly, you might make assumptions that they don’t use a platform and therefor you never look for them there.
Take the time to write down these customer personas and see how well you know your customer or customer types. Update this document over time to make sure your perceptions continue to evolve with new data.
5. No Budget
Look, we’re not saying cash in the bank to buy thousands of dollars in Bing ads, we’re saying the money to put consistent effort into your strategy. If you’re a solo operator, you have to budget your time to create content, review results, etc. If you’re in a larger business it means hiring dedicated team members who will perform those tasks. Either way, it takes effort and thinking you can get away with a little time here or there is going to yield poor results.
6. No Personality
Back to strategy and branding, if you haven’t done the exercise of defining what your brand’s personality is, you’re going to end up doing all sorts of inconsistent messaging. As you grow your audience and they see you share content, they learn what to expect from you and begin to trust you. If that is bland or inconsistent, your audience will be less likely to convert because they don’t really know what you’re offering and if it relates to them or not.
7. Not Being Unique
Similar to the above point, consider what makes you unique compared to your competitors. Why should they choose you over other brands? Document those strengths and include that in your marketing personality. Maybe you’re willing to be more direct in a product space that can be a little conservative or maybe you can be more laid back and funny in an industry known for being stuffy. Anything you can do to stand out from the crowd will help your audience remember you and it will help inform what kind of content you produce and share.
8. Lack of Consistency
We’ll say it again to be consistent ourselves. You have to stick with it and keep pushing even when it feels useless. People aren’t thinking about your brand all day long, especially if they don’t even know that you exist. On top of that, they may not be ready to buy, so you have to constantly be putting yourself out there to find and be top of mind when those stars align and your customer converts.
9. Not Using Analytics
Couple this with the above and you won’t doom yourself to make the earlier mistakes of banging your head against a wall. Make sure, in some way, you get data about your efforts. Views of a blog post, the business dashboard on social media, adding analytics to your website, even asking customers how they found you, anything to create a feedback loop. Otherwise you’re throwing darts into the night.
10. Ignoring the Competition
Your competition will always be there no matter what you do. If you ignore the competition, you are setting yourself up to fail. Keep an eye on your competition, so you know what you are up against. This isn’t to say copy them but use their efforts to inform yours because they might be pouring a lot more money into their strategy. Then, take these trends and follow your strategy and pair it with your brand’s voice to find how you can be unique in your approach.
Conclusion
Marketing can be an excellent tool for your business, but only if you know how to market correctly. These simple tips are low-hanging fruit that often gets overlooked by small and large businesses alike and if you take the time to review your company’s approach, you might find a few simple tweaks that will yield great results.
For marketing strategies and business solutions, you can contact Torch Digital Labs. With our help, we will utilize the latest marketing tools and techniques to ensure that your business grows into its potential. Get in touch with us to improve your marketing strategy.
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