Nathan Yerian
If you're like most small business owners, you wear a lot of hats. It's tough to be the salesman, estimator, project manager, and customer service manager. All this and you still have to market your company.
These 7 deadly sins will put a kink in developing your small business marketing strategy. Eliminating them in the beginning of your marketing plans will allow you to focus on your other hats.
7 Deadly Sins for Your Small Business Marketing Strategy:
1. Not making a marketing plan - This one should go with out saying, but there are still many companies out there (including big ones) that think that having a "marketing plan" means "let's build a new website", or "let's attend that trade show". Although those may be elements included in a solid marketing strategy, they are not in themselves a marketing plan.
2. Setting unrealistic marketing goals - Marketing strategies need to be formulated around an attainable goal. Setting the bar too high, or not setting the bar at all will lead to disappointment and abandonment. Make your plan progressive in nature. Set small achievable steps that lead to a greater goal.
3. Not planning to measure marketing success - Any successful marketing plan needs to be measured. After all, how would you know that it is successful if you cannot measure it? Remember, anything that cannot be measured, cannot be improved.
4. Involving the wrong people - This is a tricky one. Who are the wrong people? The short answer is, anyone that can't see the big picture. This could be your employees, your current marketing company, or maybe even you. A small business marketing strategy needs to start from a 30 thousand foot view. Anyone that cannot see the big picture should not be involved in the planning process. If you are working with a marketing company, be sure that they have a full understanding of what you are trying to accomplish and that their plan can deliver you to your goal.
5. Using the wrong marketing tools - The marketing tools that are incorporated into your plan will be the determining factor in its success. Even bad marketing campaigns can have returns if the correct medium is selected. The marketing tools you choose should be based on your target market, your company, and your industry. When selecting your marketing vehicles, ask yourself, "Is this the best/most direct way to speak with my target market?". If the answer is "no", find another method.
6. Using the right marketing tools in the wrong way - Just because you can have success with a poorly run campaign using the correct media doesn't mean you will. Implementing a pay-per-click campaign with the wrong keywords, a social media campaign that is self-serving, or a direct mail campaign sent to an untargeted list may produce results, but you will be missing some real opportunities. Maximize your investment with proven strategies for your selected method(s).
7. Not having a plan of continued improvement - Using proven strategies is a great start, but you can still improve your results. Because you measured your results, you can clearly see what is and what is not working. This is not an exact science so you will need to attempt a few things before ruling any method out, but you will know what is working best. Armed with this knowledge, you can make informed decisions about how to allocate your ongoing marketing funds.
Final thoughts:
In order for your business to thrive, you have to have a sucessful marketing strategy in place. Avoiding costly mistakes will allow you to implement your plan more quickly and effectively so you can get back to selling, estimating, managing, and last, but not least...your janitorial duties.
If you want to implement a new small business marketing strategy, download our inbound marketing e-book. An inbound marketing strategy can deliver the results you need.
