Pipsqueak Media

An essential aspect of running and maintaining a successful in the long term is marketing. Marketing is more than just creating captivating posters. It is a fundamental activity that influences how your entire business operates, speaks, and meets customer expectations. So, when marketing goes wrong the fallout can be devastating.

Even large commercial corporations who spend hundreds of millions of dollars on their marketing campaigns can get it wrong. And when it happens the effects can range from wasted capital, shattered stakeholder relations to the disenfranchisement of your customers. However, when marketing goes wrong, the causes behind its failure tend to be commonplace mistakes that can be avoided. So, here are 5 common mistakes you need to avoid when marketing your business.

5 common marketing mistakes you need to avoid

Lack of planning

The top of the list of common mistakes is little or no planning. Marketing isn’t a spontaneous act. It can take months of research, planning, and development before an effective campaign can launch. How can you know whether your campaign is having any effect if you don’t know what you seek to achieve? Before anything, map out your goals, outline actionable strategies, and select appropriate tactics. What KPIs are you going to measure? What activities will take place and when? How much will your marketing campaign cost? Only when you know this can you hope to run an effective marketing campaign.

Insufficient budget

For many SMEs, budget can be a real stumbling block. All too often their capital is needed to maintain day-to-day operations and leaves little room for anything else. But the fact is that if you seek to grow and acquire more customers, your business needs marketing. And for your marketing activities to yield results, you need a sensible budget. When marketing goes wrong because of budget, the campaign might not have run long enough, placed ads infrequently, or generated insufficient traffic.

Poor objective setting

Objectives are a crucial element of your marketing plan and need to be appropriately outlined. Without clear and quantifiable key performance indicators (KPIs), how can you measure whether your campaign is achieving the necessary benchmark? How will you even know what these benchmarks are?

When developing your objectives, consider the SMART framework. Therefore, your objectives need to be specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-based. For example: From March 1^st to September 30^th, increase website traffic from 15,000 visitors to 19500 (+30%).

Weak understanding of customers

One of the most common reasons when marketing goes wrong is because of poor customer research. To choose appropriate tactical tools for reaching prospective or even existing customers, you need to understand the segments you’re targeting. One technique that marketers frequently use is customer personas. Customer Personas consider demographic, psychographic, and profile characteristics. This helps you to understand who your customers are, where they are, what they value and how they buy. It also enables you to gauge their attitudes, habits, hobbies, and interests. But most importantly, how can your business’ offering serve their needs better than anyone else?

Unclear positioning

Finally, another stumbling block that many businesses falter upon is their positioning. If you don’t understand what your business is about and where it sits in the market, neither will your customers. Consequently, your messaging will be confusing and message receivers won’t ascertain your business’ value proposition. To correct this, consider what your brand archetype is or should be. If your business was a person, what would they be like? How would they dress? How would they talk? What beliefs or values would they hold? What societies or groups would they join? You may also develop a value proposition matrix and perceptual map to clarify your positioning.

Need help developing a marketing plan for your business or brand?

To run a fully effective marketing campaign, creating a comprehensive well-researched marketing plan is essential. You simply can’t succeed without it. But if you lack the time or just don’t know how to create one, that’s where Pipsqueak Media can help. With my experience and expertise, I can create a comprehensive campaign plan that outlines appropriate KPIs, strategies, and tactical tools supported by the latest research.