Marketing Mistakes Made By Small Business Owners
Marketing is one of the most important factors that every small business owner must consider in order to succeed. There are several marketing mistakes being made by small business owners. This is why so many brands today put time and effort into developing effective marketing plans. Small business owners are mostly aware of product and service marketing’s importance. However, they lack in-depth knowledge on what to do and what not to do.
Table Of Contents
- Introduction
- What Is Small Business Marketing?
- Marketing Mistakes That Small Business Owners Make
- Conclusion
Introduction
There are thousands of marketing strategies and small business owners have a lot less wiggle room when they make marketing mistakes. This is why small business owners ought to know the marketing mistakes they must avoid. Before delving into the different marketing mistakes that are made by small business owners, we need to understand the word “Small Business Marketing”.
What Is Small Business Marketing?
Small business marketing is the process used by small business owners in promoting, selling, and distributing their products or services. There are several processes involved when marketing a small business and some of them are quite strenuous.
Marketing Mistakes That Small Business Owners Make
Highlighted below are some marketing mistakes that small business owners make every day.
No Marketing Plan And Budget
Every business needs a marketing plan and budget for it to succeed. Small businesses have a higher rate of failure if there are no marketing plans and budget for their operations. Plans should be made for Facebook ads, logo designs, website designs, etc. Do not forget to also budget for software tools that will boost your return on investment.
No Website
Many small businesses haven’t yet understood the importance of having a website for their business. In today’s market, it is important to have a business website because it gives your business an image of authenticity. Nowadays, people just search online for the product or services they seek. You tend to lose customers if you don’t have a good running website to advertise your products.
Having a website saves you time and enables you to keep in touch with customers. Creating a website is quite easy now; and if you want your small business to grow and succeed, it is important to have a website.
Not Tracking Their Marketing Efforts And Results
Your business may have a website and good marketing plans but it’s important to know what actions had what effect. If you don’t track your marketing efforts, you won’t know what works and what doesn’t and it may end up being a futile effort.
Hiring Digital Marketers Without Understanding Marketing
Another mistake small business owners make is to delve into marketing without having at least a basic knowledge about it. The experience and knowledge you have in marketing will aid in managing your hired digital marketers. Having marketing knowledge also ensures you don’t waste resources on different marketing tactics. You will also know whom to hire and what to expect.
Ignoring Competitors And Their Modes Of Marketing
Most small business owners do not monitor their competitors and their modes of marketing. They remain solely focused on their business and do not keep tabs on what their competitors are doing. This is a mistake because you’ll not be able to know your competitors’ marketing successes and failures if you don’t track what they do. You can then pick out what they did right and where they failed so that you won’t make such a mistake.
Not Having A Strong Online Presence
Most small businesses do not have a strong online presence and this is a big mistake. The fact that your business is small or just in a single location doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a website. Most customers in this modern era search online for products and services, and they can only notice your business if you have a strong online presence.
Selling Unproven Products
Selling unproven products is one of the mistakes that small business owners do especially when starting a business. It is important that before starting a business, you need to assess:
- If people want a particular product?
- If they would want to pay for the product?
Failure to ask these questions will be like ‘pouring water into a basket and expecting it to get filled up. Take an honest look at your product and services and evaluate them. Find out if it is what people want and if it isn’t, then you can tweak or create the product or services they seek.
Focusing More On Their Social Media Accounts Than Their Websites
Social media has become one of the most influential and recognizable ways of attracting new prospective customers today. Though it is important in every small business, some business owners tend to focus on their social media handles more than their websites. That is a big mistake because all your social media efforts should be tailored toward drawing people to your website. Do not use it as a replacement for your website because, at the end of the day, your website still belongs to you but you may lose any of your social media accounts.
Ignoring Customers’ Feedback
Most small business owners fail to communicate well with their customers. They do not see the value of asking for feedback from customers. Even those that do ask for feedback also fail to act on this feedback. This is very bad and it can easily cripple the business because customers will stop patronizing your products and services if you don’t communicate with them and act swiftly on their complaints. As a small business owner, you can’t afford to be dismissive of customers’ feedback. The criticism you get may hurt initially but it is also important because you are getting their honest opinions. This will give you insight into what your customers want and how to improve your services.
Customer feedback will also give you better information about who you market to, the best working channels, and why people seek your product.
Not Being Patient
One good personality trait that a small business owner should have is to be patient when marketing. Some small businesses move from one marketing tactic to another quickly without being patient enough to give it a fair chance.
You should know that marketing takes time and it depends on the tactics, proficiency, and budget used. It will certainly work out as long as you know what you are doing and if you are being patient enough.
You have to monitor your marketing tactics to see the results and you can tweak them in order to achieve great results.
Not Differentiating Their Products And Services From Other Competitors
We are at that phase in the business world where it has become rare to create a product or offer services that have never existed before.
Since most small businesses have competition, they need to give people good and tangible reasons to do business with them instead of their competitors. Most small businesses aren’t aware of this and they do not try to differentiate their products and services by telling people why it is unique.
This is detrimental to the long-term growth of a business, so you have to use your marketing skills to educate potential customers on the uniqueness of your products and services.
Refusing To Try New Marketing Strategies
Some small business owners tend to always use the same marketing strategy every time. This is not right because even if your initial marketing strategy was successful, there will come a time when that marketing strategy will no longer help to grow your business.
This is why you need to commit to change because it will make you move from a steady but stagnant marketing strategy to a new and unproven marketing strategy.
I am aware that this is not an easy decision to make, but it is something that needs to be done. It can mean changing your product to better suit the new trends or development, hiring new people, or modifying your marketing budget.
This is a necessary risk because when the business growth is stagnant, some changes have to occur for the business not to fail.
Not Targeting A Particular Market
This is a very important factor for small business owners to know before starting any business. Most small businesses are still not aware that most products and services are not for everyone. In this modern era, people are now more informed on what they actually want, and it is left for you to know those you can target with your products and services.
Choosing a particular market for your products and services makes you easily get the attention of these people who seek it. Always remember that you can’t please everyone and it will be detrimental to your business if you try to.
Targeting The Wrong Market
One of the most painful aspects of being a small business owner is when you target the wrong market. Imagine spending time brainstorming, collecting information, assessing, and reassessing, and then you find out that people do not respond to your marketing efforts.
I honestly believe that this is even worse than not targeting a market at all, because of the time and efforts that you put into it and yet no good result. The mistakes small businesses make in such situations include:
- Want to target a very broad market
- Targeting audiences with little or no interest in their products and services
- Targeted audience who have an interest in their products or services but cannot afford it.
If the above-mentioned points are seriously considered before starting your business, you will definitely target the right market.
Not Following Up On Leads
Imagine a situation where you visit the website of a company to access some information, and you have to sign up with your email address. Once you have done that it simply means that you have become a lead.
As a small business owner, you should always follow up on people who have shown interest in your product or services. If your business is still small and you don’t get enough leads, you can follow them up with personal emails. Ask them questions to know their challenges and come up with solutions to help them.
Failure To Recognize Existing Customers’ Value
Every small business wants to grow to become a big business and it’s common knowledge that the more customers you have, the bigger you can become. However, don’t make the mistake of ignoring or failing to recognize your existing customers’ value.
It has already been proven that it is more expensive to lose existing customers than to acquire new ones. This is why even major brands are quick to appease their customers when they have complaints.
As a small business owner, try and keep your existing customers satisfied and happy; they will spend more time and money at your business.
Trying To Target Everyone
Another mistake that business owners make is thinking that everyone can be a potential customer. The truth is that no matter how good your product or service is, not everyone would want it and you would be wasting your marketing resources trying to target everyone.
You need to narrow down your target because targeting everyone will only increase your cost and not your revenue.
Conclusion
Marketing is an essential part to consider when opening a small business. Every business owner makes marketing mistakes but the key is to avoid as many as possible. If every small business owner can avoid making the marketing mistakes explained above, then the growth of their businesses will never be in doubt.
