Fix your small business online marketing strategy, and avoid these common pitfalls.
Identifying the Pitfalls
You can’t fix your business marketing strategy [3] unless you figure out what isn’t working. Common pitfalls that plague small business marketing plans include:
- Poor execution of social marketing campaigns. Has it been months since you updated your small business’s Facebook page? Not good.
- Unpopular blog posts. Is anyone posting comments on your blog posts besides your mother?
- No target market. Are you trying to market to everyone?
- No increase in sales. In fact, you’ve lost money executing your small business marketing strategy.
Fixing Problems
Anyone can fix their small business marketing as long as they have the lights on. There is never a time when it’s too late to go back to the drawing board. Before you frantically execute more half-baked ideas, think about your target market. Who would be interested in buying your product? If you sell laptops, focus your marketing efforts on students, young professionals and tech savvy people. Developing a marketing campaign that speaks to everyone will disperse your efforts and lead to more failed attempts.
Social Media
Everyone has gone social media [4]-crazy in their business marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not everyone is getting the result they need to increase sales. Social media is a 24/7 job. Tweeting whenever the mood strikes you is not going to work. Companies need to engage their clients or customers all of the time. By engage, I mean ask them questions, get their thoughts on products and deliver interesting content in the form of blogs or newsletters.
Blog Posts That Fail
Corporate blogging fails when the content is boring. Are you going for the hard-sell on your blog? Perhaps it's not the best idea; it puts people off. Your customers want to trust you. To instill trust, you have to give them something back in the form of interesting information or entertainment. It’s the “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” Small business marketing strategies must be designed to give away something for free all the time. That doesn’t mean you should give away t-shirts. It means that you provide information about your industry, products or related products. If you sell modern furniture, write blogs about designers. Give something to the people. In return, you’ll see them develop loyalty to your brand.
What would say are some of the marketing pitfalls that plague your small business? Post your comments below: