The 7 Most Common Marketing Mistakes
If you are a small business owner, new to marketing, or just need a refresher on the basics of marketing strategy, this blog post is for you! We'll cover the top 7 most common mistakes made by marketing teams, share some helpful insight into their causes and tell you how to avoid them so you can focus all your time and attention on what really matters: delivering an amazing product.
Mistake #1: Not being able to deliver at scale
Chances are that if you’re not selling thousands of units per day (or millions!), it will be difficult for your products or services to ever reach true 'marketing' scale. That's because the 'marketing' part of the business is largely about advertising. Advertising will always be an expensive and time consuming endeavor for startups. If you’re selling hundreds or thousands of units per day, you won’t have time or money to spend on advertising. So, tell me: who do you think is really going to notice your marketing efforts? Perhaps a customer who bought 50 phones last month?
Mistake #2: Trying too hard
It appears that many companies think that marketing is about producing sales leads or increasing conversions . . . by any means necessary. But, this can often be an overkill approach.
Here's the thing. It's tempting to just throw an ad on every channel you can find and try to grab as many leads as possible. However, there are no guarantees that anyone will ever find it or click your link and buy it. If the product is complex or hard to explain, it's likely that most people won't even see your message. What makes matters worse is that you'll probably spend a lot of money on those ads . . . in the hopes of converting a small number of people who may or may not buy.
On the contrary, it's much more effective to focus on what you can do to truly drive sales and revenue. Focus on creating an awesome product that customers really want, that is fun and engaging to use, and that solves a real problem for them . . . then, only when you're ready to achieve this goal, will you begin driving sales.
Mistake #3: Doing things the hard way
This mistake is especially common in B2B startups since there is often a lot more flexibility with budgets and time than in B2C startups. However, many startup marketing teams will try to force customers to become salespeople. They'll use a mass email campaign or a landing page featuring expensive "hard sell" words in the copy. While this may work if you have large enough audiences, it won't work in your niche.
If you are launching a service that is used by millions of people and you need to turn them into salespeople, you're going to be disappointed. If you're trying to attract enough people that they need convincing before buying, you'll probably be disappointed if the product doesn't meet the needs of your target audience.
B2B and B2C companies are fundamentally different because their products are fundamentally different. For example, SaaS products are extremely difficult to describe and "sell" unless you have a live demo. So, instead of trying to force your customers into becoming salespeople or spend time and money on a sales team when you don't have resources (or the right type of product), focus on educating your potential customers.
Since education is usually boring, it should be conducted in a fun and engaging way. Perhaps develop fun content about your industry that ultimately promotes the value of your products and services? In order to do this, it's good to get advice from SEO expert from https://www.sennovationresearchinstitute.com/ .
Mistake #4: Not being able to understand the core problem
The goal of marketing is to solve a customer's problems . . . by delivering a product (or service) that solves those problems. So, if you can't clearly identify the real problem your customers are experiencing, how will you know what to design and create?
Many startups have a hard time identifying their customers' real problems. This is usually because they lack data about their customers to begin with. So, you'll try to solve for the symptoms by designing and creating products that are the right features at the right price range. However, this is a mistake. Customers only care about the problems they are experiencing. So, instead of spending time and money on features they don't need or want, focus on solutions that address the core problem from a customer's perspective.
Mistake #5: Not knowing your customers' goals
So let's say you've identified your customer's problems. What's next? Your customers have probably already tried to fix their problems by purchasing other solutions or changing their behavior in another way (e.g., using a workaround). That's why it's so important to identify what their goals are. By understanding their goals, you have insight into how your product or service can help them achieve their goals. If the product or service doesn't fit the real needs of your customers, it doesn't matter if you have the best features and price. It will still be a waste of time.
Mistake #6: Not having a plan
Do you want to sit on top of a million dollars? Of course not! But, many startups do just that by not planning properly when it comes to marketing.
That's right! Marketing is an investment in your startup's future growth and sales revenue. Instead of just throwing money at things that seem good in the short term, it's better to build a marketing plan. Your marketing plan will give you a framework for thinking about customer acquisition, advertising, and sales.
It's also important to be consistent when it comes to executing your marketing goals. Consistency proves that you understand your customers and the value they are getting from your product (or service). If you aren't consistent, customers will wonder if they’re really being heard by you or if you even care about them.
Mistake #7: Not having an effective sales strategy
So let's say that you have identified the real problems that your customers are experiencing with your product or service. You've also designed an awesome product and understand where your customers' pain points are. What's next?
You need to create a sales strategy, one that can be executed consistently by all members of your team. For example, are you going to have a salesperson cold call leads? Or are you going to rely on email marketing and social media advertising? How will you know if the sales team is making money or losing money? You'll want to include items such as how many leads should be generated, what techniques should be used to generate them, how many of those leads should convert into actual sales (and at what price), and how much it will cost per lead.
Conclusion
Marketing is one of the most important aspects of your startup's growth and survival. If you have a marketing strategy in place, you have a higher chance of success. However, if you don't take the time to create one, then it won't matter how much money you invest or what type of content you create . . . your startup won't reach its full potential.
You can find more information about Startup Marketing by visiting https://startupmarketingbook.com/ . There's also information about the book and reviews by other entrepreneurs who've read it.
Thanks for reading!
I hope this article was helpful and enjoyable to read.