7 Major Marketing Mistakes You May Be Making

Even a marketing master is bound to make a mistake or two along the way, but some mistakes are extremely common. See if you're making one of these 7 major marketing mistakes and how you can fix it!

1. Failing to Differentiate Yourself

Your unique selling point (USP) is what sets you apart from the competition in the consumer's mind. You need to make it clear why a consumer should choose your product/service over your competitors. Do you offer something they don't? Do you offer superior value or quality? What specific benefits come from your product/service that does not come from a different product/service? Your USP needs to be specific, strong, and clear in order to be effective. Once you have honed and perfected your USP it should be prominent and consistent across all digital marketing aspects from social media to your website and everything in between. 

2. Poor Audience Targeting

Any marketing effort needs to be backed by a firm knowledge of who your target consumer is. Broad, catch-all marketing campaigns are often ineffective and can waste both time and money. It is crucial to identify your key audience demographics early on, as this data informs all of your marketing strategies. Based on what your product or service is and how much it costs can help narrow down who to market to and where to market. Important demographics to identify may include age, gender, and income. Once you have identified your target demographics you can build a corresponding marketing strategy to make sure you are catching the right audience's eye. 

3. Not Tracking Performance

You probably already track certain performance metrics such as revenue and followers, but other performance metrics can be more informative and useful. Whether it's in Google Analytics, Facebook page insights, or any other performance tracker, there are a few key metrics to identify and monitor. Followers and likes on social media are not nearly as important as actual engagement. Getting more followers and likes is certainly a good thing but you want it to actually lead to people sharing/buying what you are selling. Questions you might ask yourself include: What kind of posts generate the most engagement? Are people clicking just liking the post or actually clicking through to your website? What specific pages on your website get the most traffic and what pages need some work? Keywords are also crucial to track as implementing the right keywords can drive more traffic to your website. These metrics are just a drop in the pond, delving deep and often into your performance metrics is key for effective marketing strategy. 

4. Not Focusing on Repeat Customers

Though attracting new customers is unquestionably important, focusing on chasing new customers while ignoring existing/repeat customers is a major oversight. The reality behind marketing is that only around 20% of your business comes from new customers while 80% comes from previous customers. Make sure you don't neglect your existing customers and dedicate as much time and effort marketing to them as you do to new customers. Customer retention and satisfaction are crucial for building your business and your reputation. In addition to quality customer service, this can be fostered with rewards programs, coupons, and thank you emails just to name a few of the many tactics. 

5. Failing to Invest

Just having social media accounts and assuming that will drive the desired traffic to your website is a common misstep. Though your budget does play a factor in how much you can invest in marketing, you need to be willing to make an impactful investment. How much you choose to invest and where you choose to invest it is based on the four previously discussed topics. Once you have identified your audience demographics you can make better decisions on where to post your paid ads. Invest in software to track keywords and performance metrics for your website so you can see where you need to be improving. Not standing out from the crowd? Invest in design/graphics for web and social, pay to promote your page, dedicate more to customer retention. There are so many directions you can take with investing in marketing, the key is finding the right direction for your business and then taking action. 

6. Common Content Mistakes 

There are plenty of opportunities for mistakes with the content in your marketing from your website, to your social media, and beyond. One common mistake is too much content, more doesn't always mean better. On social media, posting too frequently tends to put consumers off and can lead to losing followers. The same goes for ads, emails, and your website. It is important to give the consumer the information they need as well as making sure to include plenty of keywords, but there is a breaking point. If there's a lot to read, the consumer will likely lose interest. Try taking out unnecessary text, breaking the text into more manageable text blocks, or break up content between different pages. Conversely, too little content is also a problem as it doesn't draw the consumer in and can make your brand look less established. Another common content mistake is inconsistent branding and voice. The language, imagery, and format for all your content should be strong, clear, and consistent. 

7. Expecting Immediate Results  

Even with a strong marketing strategy, results won't come right away. It takes time for an effective strategy to build upon itself and start bringing in noticeable results. Building your strategy around clear and defined goals can help guide you in the right direction. Additionally, your strategy should be dynamic, changing and adjusting with what is working and what isn't as you go along. Have realistic expectations and give it time to see results, and eventually if you don't see these results then consider making piece by piece changes to your strategic plan.  

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