Many entrepreneurs believe overseeing their entire marketing goals on their own can lead to mistakes that can seriously affect a new company’s reputation.
We have identified nine marketing mistakes that new business owners can avoid. We guide entrepreneurs on navigating through some of the nine most common ones—including advising on preventive tips so your business journey will be a smoother ride.
1. Following the advice of an “expert”
The internet has an abundance of information and various experts who give unsolicited advice on how to market a business.
No one automatically trusts online sources regarding health, money matters, relationships, etc. So, the same level of establishing trust can be applied to your company’s reputation.
What an expert marketing strategy is for one business may not translate into your goals or industry. It is highly advisable that you are constantly educating yourself on the latest marketing strategies and applicable technologies to compliment your goals and your growth. Using your judgement, along with a bit of intuition can steer you toward the right marketing consultant who understands you, your industry, and your vision. Focus on taking small steps in reaching your larger goals based on a combination of factors we just referenced.
2. So-so advice and tips
The reason so many articles offer advice within the context of tips is pretty straight forward. They have value, showcase expertise, and people have an easy time understanding them. And entrepreneurs utilize them as to validate their own businesses. Plus, they are simple to write.
The issue is many of these tips are too vague and offer little value. Prior to going live with content as tips, it is highly recommended that people can actually take action with such advice. If readers don’t find content useful, they will typically abandon it after the first few sentences. Even worse, they won’t come back a second time to revisit the source of such tips that wasted their time.
3. Ignoring the importance of B2B marketing
If you are the owner of a new business-to-business (B2B) startup, then immerse yourself in the following.
Don’t think for a second that B2B marketing cannot be as creative, energetic, and exciting as marketing to consumers. The potential for success of your business can be self-limiting if you can’t envision B2B marketing as a top priority for your growth. Business consumers still have a heartbeat and don’t always give themselves a realtime reality check when they go to work. Hence, any marketing you do should make them alert, and awake their brain cells with creative and engaging content. If you don’t implement this strategy, then your competitors certainly will. You owe it to yourself to have an agency supporting you with an integrated B2B marketing campaign that will create a lot of visibility, engagement, and call to action.
4. Tech Reluctance
As a startup, owners erroneously think they can save money by using antiquated methods of documents and spreadsheets to maintain and organize their sales and marketing efforts. A plethora of online solutions exist that can seamlessly be used for project management, storage, communication, file transfer, and, of course, sales funnels. The saving in time only makes it more efficient to use free or paid solutions. The days of chasing lost files, sorting data, finding emails or contacts, and dealing with missed communications is a thing of the past. The end result allows you to focus more on marketing and closing sales.
5. Not trying new things
You’re ahead of the game if your startup has an effective marketing tactic. Even if It is working, identifying new strategies is what will make your sales goals grow even further.
Going of your comfort zone is essential to exponentially growing your success. Don’t become complacent and miss other growth marketing opportunities in the event your current ones become stagnant. There are multiple solutions to test A/B strategies, ad platforms, creatives, and other growth-oriented goals. You never know when the right mix could propel you even further to reach new sales goals and profitability.
6. Copycat your competition
Trying to replicate the branding or marketing of competitors is not a wise idea—regardless of if you think it could be working for them and can also be successful for you.
Market and competition analysis is essential to creating your road map. However, it shouldn’t look like a carbon copy of your competitors. A lot of new customers may be confused and turned off by such far reaching tactics. It’s always better to find a unique hook when it comes to your branding and marketing. Especially if you can communicate your clear values and what makes you different. If you find it challenging to develop a standalone and visionary brand marketing strategy, it may be worth it to partner with a firm like Sales Maven, which has an impressive track record of guiding businesses like yours with original and unique visions to set yourself apart from the competition.
7. Ignoring high commitment content & campaigns
The majority of people do not want to commit to reading or watching extensively long content. In reality, this just may be exactly what your focus should be on to demonstrate your expertise. In turn, this may be a successful way to convert leads into clients or customers.
8. Micro content focus
As with the previous mistake, this may take a more extreme variation. Many startups put all their energy and focus into creating tiny bits of content for IG stories, Tik Tok, Snap, etc. While micro content that is targeted can create a lot of buzz, it may not always convert them to clients or customers. Identify a roadmap on how to maximize any buzz from short form micro content and evolve it into a more consistent sales funnel.
9. Excessive social media presence
A common mistake is for small businesses to be on every social media platform. Common sense dictates aligning your brand with the most applicable social media target is a better use of your focus and time. If your demographics are teens, then TikTok or Instagram would be superior to let’s say LinkedIn. The latter is more applicable if you are targeting lawyers or financial advisors.
Got marketing and sales-related questions about your small business? Contact Sales Maven! Our pros are always available to answer them and chat about whatever is on your mind.
