Marketing your small business is hugely important. If you don’t do any marketing, how will your potential customers or clients know that you even exist? Even the smallest amount of marketing is better than none at all, but good, well thought out, strategic marketing is best. However, even knowing how important marketing is to any small business, business owners still make mistakes. Here are the main ones, and what you should do to avoid them.
No Marketing Plan
If you start out without any kind of marketing plan, things can quickly go wrong. You can spend far too much, you can market in the wrong places and to the wrong people, and you can even alienate people completely. You might be lucky; you might hit upon the perfect marketing solution. It’s far more likely, however, that you’ll make some costly and potentially devastating mistakes. Spending time creating a marketing plan along with some in-depth market research will help you to gauge where and how to market your product or service. Get this right, and you will start to see sales rising.
Not Having a USP
A USP is a unique selling point/proposition. Having this is essential if you want to stand out from the crowd and be different to everyone else around, especially your closest competitors. Without a USP, you may struggle to persuade people to come to you rather than go somewhere else. Don’t worry if you’re not sure what your USP is. Look at every aspect of your business, and even if it takes you a while, you’ll eventually find what you’re looking for. Even the smallest thing can make the biggest difference.
Not Being Professional
You know what your USP is, and you have a great marketing plan that is going to tell everyone about it. Yet if your marketing material is homemade, or it’s spelled wrong or is perhaps lacking the professional edge; if you made a video and didn’t get the right equipment or check out the best smartphone gimbal to turn it from amateur to professional, then that is going to turn people away. Your marketing needs to be as professional as your business is if you want it to make the best, most positive impact.
Not Having A Target Market
If you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one. Not everyone is going to be a potential new customer – not everyone is going to want, need, or even like what you’re selling. This is why market research is important. Find out who you should be selling to and concentrate on doing exactly that. Who needs your product most? What age range? What gender? How do they like to be marketed to? What do they want your product and no one else’s? These questions and more are supremely important.
Not Using Word Of Mouth
Word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to let people know what you do. It’s a wonderful thing because it’s free, and you don’t have to work at it – if you’re doing a good enough job, it should just happen naturally. People want their friends, family, and work colleagues to be aware of a good bargain, or a friendly store. They want others to experience the happiness they, themselves, felt when buying from you. So work in a way that makes others want to tell people about you in a positive light.