Refusing to spend money marketing a small business can be one of the biggest mistakes a company can make when starting out…
Are you failing to plan or planning to fail? Marketing a small business is critical to the success of your new enterprise. One of the major reasons why small businesses fail is refusing to spend any time, money or resources on marketing, promoting and advertising. Read more about these potential marketing mistakes so you don’t become another small business statistic.
Not spending any time on marketing
It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, if people do not know it exists, they won’t search for it. Marketing for a small business does not have to be expensive or time consuming but it should be seen as an investment not as a cost to your business. By finding new potential customers, this can lead to sales conversion and bringing more profit into the company, thus recuperating your advertising costs.
No marketing plan
A small business without a marketing plan is like rowing without a paddle – going in circles and getting nowhere fast. While it is often thought that a small business can do marketing activities ad hoc while a larger company needs to plan for activities; the opposite is true. A large company can weather the storm of marketing mistakes but a small business has to account for every marketing dollar spent.
Inconsistent branding and brand message
Whether you’re marketing a small business or multi-million dollar corporation, it is important to keep your branding consistent across your online and offline advertising campaigns, website design, social media platforms and any other marketing tools you may use. Branding includes your slogan, corporate colours, logo, fonts and other design elements that distinguish your brand from your competitors.
Targeting the wrong market
Before marketing a small business, identifying the right market is critical to your success. You should define a primary target market and a secondary market that are a foundation for marketing campaigns. Remember having too broad a target market can be as wrought with disaster as much as targeting the wrong market – you cannot be all things to all people no matter how hard you try.
Using the wrong marketing tools
Once you have defined your target market, find marketing tools that align with that target market even if is the more expensive option. There is little point in buying a cheap advertisement in a magazine or newspaper that your target audience does not read. Smaller companies just starting out often cannot afford a media planner but a good tip is to look at where your competitors are promoting their business and start from there.
Timing is everything
When you are marketing a small business, it is important to know the deadlines for marketing materials. For example, magazines, radio and TV all have varying lead times for editorial and advertising material. This is particularly important if you have a seasonal product or service. Once you have worked out what these deadlines are, you can work backwards to determine your internal deadlines to get material ready.
Failing to measure results
An important element of marketing campaigns is to evaluate campaign results and measure the results of the campaign against the goals you initially set. A post-marketing campaign analysis will help you determine what worked, what didn’t and how you can improve the marketing campaign next time around and get the most out of your marketing dollars.
Marketing is just as vital to your small business as new product and development, customer service and sales but marketing takes planning to ensure it is executed effectively. It doesn’t matter that your product or service is the best invention since sliced bread, if consumers don’t know it exists, they simply won’t buy it and this is why marketing a small business is fundamental to the success of a small business.