Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make Online: Marketing [Part 5]

Marketing is one of the fastest-changing industries. With giants like Google and Facebook persistently altering their algorithms, we digital marketers are always on the lookout for the next big thing. Trends may come and go but what makes a good marketing strategy lasting and reliable is the executive team behind it and truth be told, a boatload of planning and experience.

Business owners and senior management often get the wrong idea about what marketing is, how much it costs, and where it stands. Usually, it’s being left out or being pinned down under sales departments, delegated to juniors or limited to one or two popular channels (e.g., doing only Facebook marketing, doing only Instagram marketing).

Frankly, some level of marketing background and understanding is simply a must in the digital age. Things are elementary and straightforward – if you don’t take something into account, your competitors will, and this will result in loss of business.

How to Know If Something Is not Working?

Marketing can be quite overwhelming. Things are changing rapidly. Often there isn’t enough time to AB test a campaign or an unconventional approach, and data is regularly piling up without thorough analysis. Everybody knows that detailed evaluation of figures and the latest statistics is the key to setting and measuring goals. Nevertheless, getting lost in marketing is one of the most common business mistakes.

Digital marketing is a continuous process of change. There are no universal recipes for success and no clear-cut signs of failure either. The trial and error method is what we often call experience, but some red lights are pretty good indicators that something isn’t working.

Lack of Marketing

As elementary as it sounds, a lot of businesses underestimate marketing in their early days. Sometimes having two or three clients may seem enough, and work is going on well. So why would anyone invest time and resources in finding new clients when you’re happy where you are?

The thing is, every client-provider relationship has an expiry date. And as your clients’ businesses grow, so do their needs and problems. You need to have the skill and range to improve with them and provide solutions two steps ahead of their problems.

As your business develops, you will hire new people, evolve your team skillset, and improve. But in order еto be versatile and flexible, there is nothing better than catering to contrasting clients in different industries.

As the marketing range grows, the definition becomes foggy and so do goals and monitoring success rate. But marketing isn’t just ads and SEO. Marketing brings brand awareness and creates strong relationships with clients that last.

According to Global marketing and finance, 71% of consumers consider recognizing a brand a crucial purchase decision. And 82% of investors believe that name recognition is essential when investing. This means that brand awareness (or spending time and resources in marketing) is a top priority when you start your business.

Word to mouth marketing is making a huge comeback. But in the digital age we are living, a brand with no online presence can hardly scale outside their geographic area.

Website and Online Presence

Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make Online: Static and Cheap Websites [Part 1]

Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make Online: Social Media Presence [Part 4]

Online presence and website are fundamental to creating your brand image. Let’s shine some light on something that is often neglected: brand visual design and brand mission statement.

Change is good, growing is good, expanding is good. But change isn’t always cherished by clients and longterm users.

Branding is your face to the world.

Logo and company colors are how your customers identify you and your services. Creating a logo and a rough design seems relatively easy nowadays. There are plenty of excellent websites such as Tailor Brands or Smashing Logo that allow people with little or no experience in visualizing their ideas. There are also Photoshop, Canva, and even tons of free, downloadable, ready to use mockups online.

Here’s the catch – Rebranding is hard and takes time — especially when you have established your brand, and you have successfully created your first partnerships.

Cutting costs is the most natural thing to do when you start your business. The design may seem like the perfect thing to cut. But it’s often not a viable decision in the long run.

At DevriX, we have worked with many startups and bootstraps. We are a bootstrapped business, so we know the struggle. An experienced designer is expensive and overbooked. You often have to wait months for a completed design and mockups, then comes the back and forth with the remarks and iterations. The end costs can quickly cut into your budget.

That’s how we came to the retainer plans idea.

Instead of having a one-time fixed fee project, we are giving our customers the opportunity of continuous development and access to every rockstar in our team – technical developers, branding experts, marketing gurus, and design savants – at a fraction of the cost of having them onsite.

This business model allows for careful budget planning and long-term organization of the processes. It’s a win-win. Our clients receive top-notch expertise in every business aspect, and we get the excitement and fulfillment of solving new business problems.

New business owners must make hundreds of important decisions for their future development. Branding is amongst the top underrated. Don’t neglect your branding, trust an expert.

Targeting

Targeting in marketing is the process of choosing and finding the right group of people that need your services.

Just like all things marketing, it sounds natural and very straightforward. For instance, if you are selling truck tires; it’s only logical that your target group would consist of people that own trucks.

There’s one problem – groundbreaking and never done before business ideas are one in a billion. And if someone is already driving a truck, there is already someone else that is selling them tires.

So how do you get ahead of the competition?

Marketing.

Targeting is a gold mine if done right. Here are a few mistakes people make when working with clients on their marketing strategy.

No Targeting/Target Audience Is Too Broad

No targeting means that you don’t know who your clients are, and it’s only a matter of time before the competition takes you out.

Mass marketing is no longer viable when it comes to startups and digital presence. It’s expensive, vague, and turns planning into fortune-telling.

If you happen to be a newly started business, just stepped online, or don’t have unlimited funding behind your back, spend some time on marketing segmentation and twice as much on buying personas.

Talking directly to clients and solving specific problems is one of the pillars of a successful business.

You need to know your clients’ demographics to speak to them directly. Demographics include profession, fields of interest, education, age, location, income, and in some cases, even personal information such as gender and marital status.

Targeting in marketing isn’t only a buzzword for marketers to sell their services.

Targeting will answer questions about your brand and services that will eventually make you better. Because if you cater to everyone, you cater to no one in particular and you are not solving specific problems.

Your Target Market Is not Broad Enough.

Opposing to having no target at all, having a niche that is too narrow can be an obstacle as well.

Having a small number of potential clients shouldn’t stop you from developing your product or services. In any case, it’s a lot easier going from narrow to broad than the other way around.

However, once aware that you are catering to a small audience, you need to be very specific in your business plan and marketing strategy.

You have to start with revenue targets and deadlines. This is a crucial decision and will help you shape the right expectations. Rapid growth isn’t typical for very niche businesses, but unlike many other fields, you can rely on a steady income and predictable advancement.

And then continue with tons of marketing efforts.

Niche marketing isn’t a “light” version of regular marketing. Contrary to what most people think, it requires a much more in-depth understanding of marketing, marketing segmentation, and marketing research.

Customer service, direct approach, and outstanding product or service are essential for small niche businesses. When you cater to a small group of people, losing a client due to oversight is implausible and may become a big backtrack.

To avoid failure before you started, invest plenty of time on proper market research and thorough planning. If you don’t have any marketing background or are just getting in the hang of it, contact a specialist and outsource as much as you can.

Conclusion

Marketing is fundamental in any business. It’s a fast-growing industry, and continuous iteration and development is the only way to success. Marketing is not an abstract or luxury addition to your starting business; it’s a must. Careful planning and resource organization in your marketing approach can positively affect all aspects of your work – from brand awareness and lead generation to product optimization and key management decisions – marketing is a necessary extension to your existing structure.

Viral marketing videos, popular guidelines, and blogs often create an unrealistic expectation of what marketing is and how much time is needed for a person to become a “successful” marketer. Don’t fall for sugar-coated buzzwords – contact an experienced specialist and book a consultation.

Having a dedicated marketing team on site is very expensive and brings a ton of communication and planning overhead. It often exceeds the budget scope of many starting businesses. Start smart – contact us and gain access to top experts in the industry. We have the experience, the technology, and know-how to help you on your way to success.