Marketing can make or break a company. And with the constantly changing marketing practices in business, it’s imperative for smart organizations to keep up on what works and what doesn’t. Check out our list of the biggest marketing mistakes below to ensure your company isn’t breaking any tried-and-true rules!
1. A LACK OF EMOTIONAL IMPACT.
The realization that your marketing attempts are just having no emotional impact on your customer base is something that will ultimately force you into changing your approach to business. Your marketing must resonate with your customers in some way, or else it is pointless you going any further. However, you need to also be aware of the particular strings you are trying to pull on them in the first place.
If your marketing creative doesn’t have a consistent emotional impact, it’s time to rethink your approach.
2. BEING GUILTY OF INFORMATION OVERLOAD.
You need to be careful the amount of information included in a marketing campaign because there can be a tipping point where customers are overloaded with far too many details. When this happens, they will struggle to make sense of what you’re saying, leading to them going elsewhere and not carrying out the actions you were hoping for.
Marketing clarity is often found through aggressive editing. Less is more.
3. FORGETTING YOUR CUSTOMERS.
Never forget past customers. You need to remember that they have already spent money with you, so as long as they were a happy customer, then there is a good chance that they will come back. However, you need to make them feel as if they were valued and not just forgotten.
The best way to grow is to focus on delighting existing customers.
4. NOT ENCOURAGING CUSTOMERS TO SPREAD THE WORD.
In the past, marketing methods that empowered customer voice were rather limited. However, one of the most successful was good old word of mouth. Social media empowers customers to amplify their voice through a whole host of different methods. It is in your best interest to use multiple social media platforms in tandem. By focusing on tracking conversions and ROI for each platform you can understand which social networks should be your primary focus. People who love your product or service want to spread the word, so make it painless to do so.
And never spend money for fake social media interactions. Your money and time are better spent delighting real humans.
5. NOT GIVING ENOUGH.
Information overload was mentioned earlier, but the opposite end of the spectrum is just as bad and should certainly be avoided. Good marketing gives something of value or interest to a customer. Simply listing your offerings is fine, but it this boring sales-y approach is dying off. What valuable offer or idea can you incentivize your customers with that would make their lives better? Because there is enough competition out there for them to easily go elsewhere.
Successful marketing adds tangible value to the life of your audience.
6. FAILURE TO PROVIDE PROOF.
If you plan on making any kind of claim in your marketing, then you need to also provide proof. Not backing things up with evidence just means that people have to think about taking you at face value, and that’s not always a good thing. Instead, you have to show them that you are correct in what you are saying as this will also work at building some trust in you which is never going to be a bad thing either. You cannot just say something to pull people in and then leave it at that because it just doesn’t work that way.
7. FAILING TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL.
Missing the importance of local search as part of your marketing strategy will only make life harder for yourself, especially if you’re a brick and mortar shop. Large brands with multiple locations or small single-location spaces are fighting on the same footing in search engines. Local search is the frontlines of the fight for customer, as this is where consumers identify and make the decision to interact with your brand. Not taking the marketing here seriously is practically marketing suicide. However, now any business that is serious about approaching its local markets is going to take effort to capture as much of the market as possible.
Local search matters and deserves dedicated focus for brands with physical locations.
