5 Marketing Mistakes You Want to Avoid at All Costs [Guest Post]

Regardless of what a business sells, or a blogger blogs about, they need a comprehensive marketing plan that pinpoints their ideal customer; a campaign that bypasses political and sensitive topics; and a swathe of great content for consumers to interact with and build trust.

In the decades before the information revolution, the most commonly followed marketing tactics were those that involved contacting as many people as possible and reaching out to almost every consumer possible, with the thought process that ‘A larger audience has to mean higher sales.’ We’ve now come to learn this is one of many terrible marketing mistakes that anyone can make.

Below we’ve outlined some of the worst marketing mistakes you can make, and which ones to avoid at all costs.

Targeting Everyone

No company, no matter their size or product offering, can say they’ve created a product designed for every consumer. Similarly, no blogger can appease every audience.  Spending the time and money to design ads and run campaigns targeted towards every consumer in every market is bound to be a massive waste of money and can result in such a low ROI or loss, that the business has a real risk of going bankrupt.

In the early stages of a campaign development, you should spend a fair amount of time determining your target audience and who your products or content is mostly geared towards. This also means looking for the correct channels to target them on, and with what types of content.

Making Customer Contact Difficult

Leaving your communication lines shut can make any campaign or product launch inefficient. It may seem obvious, but a lot of bloggers forget that their social media, websites and other communications lines should remain open. One of the great things about blogging is that it’s a two way street, so it should be easy for your audience to send you messages and questions and make orders.

When you begin spending money to spread awareness of your brand, you have to be entirely certain that all of your communication channels are open. This means that your social media accounts, emails, phone and website are all monitored and prepared for any leads you might generate. Customers need to be able to contact you and find your products with just a few taps.

There are a few things you can do to make sure your potential customers feel invited to your brand and are easily able to contact and interact with you:

• Display the brand’s social media information on the front page of your website
• Publish an email address or a toll-free phone number in your website’s menu bar or footer
• Distribute business cards and advertisements with contact information on them
• Make social media accounts easy to share with one-tap contact info

Inconsistent Blogging

Your blog is where your customers can build a personal relationship with you and mental picture of your business. Keeping your blog updated with quality content is vital to developing a trustworthy business, and to let your customers know that you’re still operational. Most importantly, your posts must be consistent. Readers want to know when they can expect a new post, so think about how you can engage a loyal readership.

A blog with the correct optimisation will also give your website better SEO which means that users searching for items you’ve blogged about have a higher chance of being taken to your website. HubSpot revealed that 60% of businesses with blog content obtain more customers.

Advertising an Incomplete Website or Store

A website acts as a modern-day storefront. When a campaign is implemented and directs potential customers to a company website, it must be entirely complete and designed to suit the style and personality of that target market.

Bloggers without a correctly designed website and web-store are far less likely to profit from their marketing dollars as consumers are less likely to trust an incomplete site. Websites that are hard to navigate or designed for the incorrect target market are just a couple reasons campaigns fail.

For retailers and online sellers, inventory and stock should be entirely prepared and ready to go. If you’re preparing a campaign, be ready for an influx of new customers and sales. Your site simply can’t say ‘Out of Stock’ on all of your products during a costly ad campaign.

Mistakes Within Ads

Grammar and wording errors can render an entire campaign entirely useless. Made by a full-time blogger, these types of mistakes can tarnish his or her reputation. This goes beyond simple grammatical errors, factual errors and incorrect statements.

Also, bloggers or companies who accidentally or purposefully use a political movement or current events to market their products often face major backlash. A prime example of this was Pepsi’s campaign, starring Kendall Jenner, using the Black Lives Matter movement to say that Pepsi can somehow end police brutality. In just a few days, consumer perception of Pepsi’s brand plummeted from over 80% positive to just 40%.

An essential part of advertising is to have your marketing team divert from as many politically and insensitive topics as possible to mitigate any risks you may put on your business.

What About You?

Have you made any of the above marketing mistakes? If not, what were some of your marketing mistakes?

 

About the Author

Ellie Saunders is a young mother who is passionate about digital businesses. She is currently enjoying her marketing role at eVoice, a place where businesses can get virtual and toll free numbers.