6 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid!

6 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid!

Let's take a quick look at six marketing mistakes that many small business owners make, and how you can avoid them.

Mistake #1 is not developing and maintaining a marketing focus. You need to hone in on your best prospects: that core group most likely to become long-term customers. Who do you really want to appeal to? What group do you focus your marketing efforts on? You should focus on the people you're more likely to sell to.

Mistake #2 is the lack of a compelling offer. You need something that excites people to take action now and this call to action should be on your website home page. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to not give people a specific call to action, something you want them to do immediately.

Mistake #3 is not using testimonials. What other people say about you is much more convincing to a prospect than what you say about yourself. Sprinkle testimonials throughout your website.

Mistake #4 is failing to measure the results of your marketing. Track everything. Every single dollar should be accounted for, so you know what works and what doesn't. Don't just throw a bunch of things out there without some way to track the results. When you know one type of promotion is working and another isn’t, you can cut the latter and focus on the former.

Mistake #5 is using bad copy. The right words are important, so you have to have good copywriting skills. (Please see my February 18, 2014 blog for more information about writing good copy.)

Mistake #6 is relying too much on one advertising medium. You have to diversify. Do different things to generate traffic to your website, or get people into your store. The more of those things you can do, the less reliant you'll be on any one method. Make sure it's all trackable.