If you Google ‘mistakes in marketing’ you’ll find over 160 million results, and if you’re self-employed or a small business owner, you probably won’t have time to trawl through that dense forest of information. In fact, if you’re wondering about marketing mistakes or successes, then the chances are you’re trying to find a kick-ass marketing strategy for your business but might not know where to start your journey.
Maybe you feel you want something to help you reach your business goals, but you don’t know where to start. Or you’ve got some reach on social media but aren’t sure how to keep the energy flowing. To help you think about what you want to achieve, we’ve put together some tips for making sure your path into marketing helps you see the wood for the trees.
- Start with your core values
What is at the heart of your business? What are you aiming to project to customers, and how do you want your business to be perceived? Determining your company’s core values is a similar exercise to identifying your personal core values. In an ideal world, you should narrow your business values to three core principles that underpin the heart and soul of your enterprise. Involving staff in this exercise also helps build morale and enables them to see your business as something to invest in, rather than ‘just a job’. Marketing campaigns will feel trite if they aren’t underpinned by the solid roots of your business’s core values. Company values intertwine your business, your staff, your products and your customers.
- Override negativity
Back to those Google results on marketing mistakes. The following is list captured from a few posts on the subject from the first page:
- No plan
- No clue what makes your business unique
- Fear of social media
- Not building on word of mouth advertising
- Not trying new marketing strategies
- No website
- Not monitoring results
- Ignoring your competitors’ marketing
- Aiming for the wrong target audience
- Having no marketing plan
- Not budgeting for a wider marketing strategy
- Ignoring mobile users
- Lack of consistency
If that makes you feel gloomy, it’s because there is no positivity here at all. Presenting a list like this to a team considering a marketing strategy wouldn’t inspire them to creatively develop a winning campaign. It would make them want to go home to bed. Start from a place of confidence and inspire others to follow.
- Ask the experts
You wouldn’t loan your car to someone without a licence, or let an unqualified person manage your business accounts, and marketing is just as important. It requires training, expertise and knowledge, so having a dedicated marketing expert on your team, or outsourcing to an external agency are important components for the success of your business. If your enterprise is going to bloom and make the best of the opportunities available, then effective marketing is vital nourishment that feeds company growth. You can survive without it, but if you want to thrive, make marketing an integral and consistent business strategy.
Get in touch with the Koala Team – hello@koalamarketing.co.uk.
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At Koala we are about more than just numbers. We are people driven, passionate and keen to educate and lead others into sustainable and eco-friendly futures. Working with us will help your business to streamline marketing actions into measurable results using our effective smart marketing services.
