Top 6 Marketing Mistakes Entrepreneurs Commonly Make

Marketing your brand is a must- products and services do not just sell themselves. You have to clearly communicate to your target market what you are offering- how it can fulfill their needs, how it can make them happy, etc.

Pay extra attention to these common marketing mistakes and avoid the potentially embarrassing experience of having to deal with these business boo-boo’s:

#1. No Website and Social Media Pages :

It is important to track the outcome of your different marketing efforts to have a clear idea of what works and what doesn’t work for your business. Otherwise, you might just be throwing money away on ineffective channels.

Some entrepreneurs become complacent once they’ve set up their promotions and just wait for the sales to follow. But how do you know which channel is generating the best results?

You have to measure the results so that you can consider investing more funds and time on the effective ones and pull out the ones that are not contributing much to your bottom line. This will help you save money and optimize your returns.

#2. Not Measuring Results :

Some entrepreneurs become complacent once they’ve set up their promotions and just wait for the sales to follow. But how do you know which channel is generating the best results?

#3. Oblivious of Competitors’ Moves :

One of the most efficient ways to grow is to learn from the mistakes of others. It is important to keep tabs on what your competitors are doing- what marketing promotions did they do once and never repeated again? That can give you an idea of that effort’s effectivity (or lack thereof).

What are the marketing channels that they utilize again and again? What are their customers saying about them? Find out and you might want to consider replicating their successful moves.

Do not just focus on your direct competitors? You might also want to check out other companies in the same industry, but operating in other states or countries. Or companies offering a different product or service but serving the same target market- check how they communicate with their customers and that might give you a good idea on the kinds of messages that you shared market response to.

#4. Unclear Unique Product Proposition :

Before going forward on any marketing effort, you have to first establish your brand’s personality and uniqueness- what is the brand image that you want to project? What makes your product or service different? Create your unique product proposition.

Then make sure that your marketing efforts clearly communicate your brand’s attributes. Your uniqueness is what makes you interesting to your target audience. It is what will help them make ‘the choice’ to go with your brand, instead of your competitor’s.

And it is natural that people want to build lasting relationships with interesting entities, and not boring run-off-the-mill personalities.

#5. Undefined Target Market :

It is crucial that your marketing communications are reaching your target market- the right audience. First, you have to review and check the profile of your actual customers- who are they? Do they match the profile that you have in your mind?

You might think that your customers are mostly commuters, when in fact, maybe a majority of them have become stay-at-home moms. A mismatch in your expectations and actual actions can be ineffective and costly.

Continue to evaluate the profile of your audience- as they get older or society changes, except that their behaviors and patterns will adapt to these developments too.

Knowing how your market behaves and where they ‘hang out’ can help you decide on the right marketing channels to use. Be very clear on who and where your target customers are before you decide on your marketing programs.

#6. Absence of Detailed Budgeting :

Marketing your brand is truly exciting! But do not get carried away and start promoting without doing your financial computation and budgeting first.

Set a quarterly or annual marketing budget and carefully decide how to divide the funds among the tactics you want to implement.

Failure to do this properly might mean depleting your funds prematurely and not being able to take advantage of the year-end holiday rush.

Marketing your brand effectively basically entails letting your target market know what you love best about your products and services, and why they should love your brand too. And then making sure that your audience receives your message in a way that is exciting, attractive and relatable to them.

If executed correctly, you can develop lifetime partnerships with your customers.