Not all marketing is good marketing. Sometimes, making mistakes in your marketing efforts can actually do more harm than good. There are several marketing mistakes that can greatly damage your business – whether that’s posting on social media in a way that won’t resonate with your audience, or making technical errors when it comes to your website. Here are some of the most common marketing mistakes we see that can greatly damage your business – and how to fix them.
1. Overcomplicating Things
A common mistake in marketing we see is overcomplicating things. This can include having far too much text on your ads, mixing your messages, or having too many hoops for your customers to jump through in order to learn about your business. When an ad, social media post, or web page is not consistent with its messaging, it can be incredibly confusing for audiences. Many people have a tendency to want to put too much information into a relatively small space. This overcomplicates your marketing efforts and can be a large detriment to your business. When in doubt, keep all your marketing as simple as possible. Each touch point with a client (whether that’s an ad, social media post, or a webpage) should have a single message for them to take in.
2. Not Keeping Track Of Technical Assets
A huge marketing mistake we see all too often is when business owners don’t own and aren’t in control of their marketing assets. This includes your website’s domain, Google Ads account, Google My Business account, any social media accounts, as well as any other accounts related to your business. It’s incredibly important that you ensure all your technical assets are owned and controlled by the business owner. Most of these accounts can give additional access to your marketing agency and other members of your team, but when accounts are owned and controlled by people who are outside of the company’s ownership, it can be very difficult to regain control if professional connections are lost. We have worked with many clients who have had to start their social media pages from scratch because they couldn’t regain control of their account, or some clients have let their domains expire without knowing who is meant to take care of the renewals, which can mean they lose their entire website.
3. Marketing to the Wrong Audience
A major mistake in marketing is not knowing who your target audience is. Sometimes, it can be easy to assume that as the owner of the company, you are the primary audience for your product or service, but this is actually rarely the case. When marketing efforts are targeting people that aren’t related or interested in your business, it’s money down the drain. You can figure out who your target audience is by looking at your most valuable customers and thinking about who you would love to work with. By really considering who would benefit the most from your product or service, who you want to work with, and who your current customers are, you can put together a clear understanding of who you should be marketing to.
4. Deviating from Your Brand
Deviation from your brand can come with serious consequences. When you use colours that aren’t related to your brand, you lose any chance of brand recognition with your audience – as well as coming across disjointed throughout your brand. Sticking with a chosen set of colours and fonts is imperative to ensuring that your marketing efforts are recognizable and fruitful. Adding in too many colours or changing colour usage from platform to platform is harmful to your business as it tells audiences that there isn’t a clear vision or understanding within the business. We highly recommend picking three or four colours and up to two fonts for your brand and sticking to them across all marketing channels.
5. Not Following Up with Leads in a Timely Manner
One of the worst things to do in business is not get back to prospective customers. We have seen it time and time again where a business has five ways to be contacted but having this many modes of communication is overwhelming, so no one gets a response. There are plenty of ways for a prospective customer to get a hold of a business, which can be fantastic until people get missed and business is lost. It’s important to simplify your modes of communication with a client to ensure that you are following up with every lead – there’s no point in getting new leads if you aren’t reaching out! The most important mode of communication is a contact form on your website, so ensure that the forms are working and going to the right people. A close second for communication channels is your phone system, so while it may not be possible to have someone answering phone calls all day, try to follow up within the hour of every call. With other platforms like GMB and social media, you can set up autoresponders encouraging customers to call you or fill out the contact form, and you can also utilize programs that put all communication from your social media platforms into a single response channel. Not following up with leads can really damage your business.
6. Expecting Someone to ‘Do it All’
Great marketing requires experience and specialized knowledge in a wide variety of areas. SEO, PPC, content writing, design, strategy, web development, and other forms of digital marketing are vastly different and require different skill sets. Expecting a single person to perform every part of your marketing, especially if they aren’t trained, will often do more damage to your business than anything. When a business only has one person working on their marketing efforts, typically avenues or missed or poorly done. The best way to overcome this issue is through the use of an agency, as the agency will employ a variety of specialists who all work together to move a brand forward.
Do any of these points resonate with you? Our team can help! BubbleUP Marketing is Edmonton’s best digital marketing agency. We want to empower our clients to get the most out of their marketing efforts – and sometimes that means being a little frank when it comes to marketing mistakes that can harm your business. If you want to get started on marketing that will help your business thrive, please contact us!
