8 Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make
According to a recent survey, about half of all American small businesses lack a solid marketing plan. Not having a plan is a small business's biggest marketing mistake.
If you're not marketing your business enough now, it could eventually lead to its demise. You'll struggle to spread the word about your company without using small business marketing to your advantage.
There are also some other marketing mistakes that you might be making as a small business owner that can come back to bite you. Learn about eight of them below.
1. Failing to Create a Website for Your Small Business
These days, there is really no excuse for small businesses not to have websites. Websites are no longer an exception, they’re the expectation.
Yet, a recent report revealed that about 27% of small businesses are still operating without websites. These businesses are likely hurting their bottom lines by failing to create websites.
If your small business is still operating without a website, you should take action immediately. With our company, you can have a website up and running within about one week.
Even if you don't know the first thing about web design, our experts will help you start a new website quickly, and your website will soon become one of your best marketing tools.
2. Ignoring the Importance of SEO When It Comes to Your Company's Website
In this day and age, simply setting up a website for your small business isn't enough. Once you create a website, you also need to make sure that you understand the importance of search engine optimization, or SEO.
SEO is a process that involves incorporating certain things into your website to make it easier for others to find it. By adding the right keywords, links, etc., to your site, you can help it rank much higher on search engine results pages and ensure that plenty of people visit it each month.
If SEO isn't a big part of your small business marketing strategy, you're making a big mistake. You'll be missing out on an opportunity to bring in so much more traffic on a regular basis.
3. Forgetting to Establish a Social Media Presence for Your Small Business
While it's important for small businesses to set up websites and use them for marketing purposes, it's just as important for them to establish a social media presence. Your company should have accounts on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
Social media has provided small businesses with a brand-new way to connect with customers. It's also enabled them to create unique brand voices that separate them from the pack.
4. Misidentifying the Target Audience for Your Small Business
Who is your small business's target audience? You can have the best small business website in the world and a wonderful social media presence, but if you don't know your target audience, all of your marketing efforts might be ineffective.
Before you begin employing marketing techniques for your small business, you should make sure you know who your target audience is. This will enable you to tailor your content to them, increasing the chances of them patronizing your small business.
5. Letting Negative Online Reviews for Your Small Business Linger
Whether you like it or not, people patronizing your small business will typically leave reviews for your company. They'll do it through several review sites, and their reviews will impact your reputation.
If you can rack up almost nothing but positive reviews, you won't have to worry about anything other than thanking those who have taken the time to leave reviews for your business.
But if you find that you've received a lot of negative reviews online, you should do something about it. You will either want to look into having these reviews removed if you don't feel as though they're legit or respond to these reviews to show that your company cares about customer input.
Whatever you do, you don't want to allow negative reviews to persist for too long, making it seem as though your company doesn't care about them.
6. Spending Too Much Money or Not Enough Money on Small Business Marketing
To implement your small business marketing plan, you will need to be prepared to spend money. You should create a marketing budget and use it accordingly.
Just be sure you're not spending too much or not enough money on your small business marketing efforts. As a general rule of thumb, you will want to devote around 7% of your gross revenue to marketing to make the most of it.
7. Relying on Outdated Small Business Marketing Strategies
Are you using some marketing strategies you learned about when you attended college in the early 2000s to run a small business in 2022? If you are, that alone will prove to be one of the biggest small business marketing mistakes you're making.
The marketing world has changed quite a bit over the last few years, let alone the last 20 years. So you should try to avoid using any outdated small business marketing strategies. You'll be asking for trouble if you take this approach to marketing.
8. Marketing Your Business Without Analyzing the Results
Marketing your business is very important, but it doesn't do you much good if you're not getting any positive results. That's why you should get into the habit of analyzing the results of your marketing efforts constantly.
If some aspect of your small business marketing plan isn't working, you must adjust it accordingly. Otherwise, it could lead to you spending a lot of time and money on a marketing strategy that isn't doing you much good.
Try Not to Make Any of These Crucial Small Business Marketing Mistakes
Marketing your small business effectively isn't always easy. You'll need to work hard to avoid making any marketing mistakes listed here.
We can help you steer clear of at least some of them by providing you with affordable website design services and digital marketing solutions. We’ll set you up with the website you need to get your small business marketing plan off the ground.
Check out some examples of our work and contact us today to learn more about getting a website for your small business.
If you're not marketing your business enough now, it could eventually lead to its demise. You'll struggle to spread the word about your company without using small business marketing to your advantage.
There are also some other marketing mistakes that you might be making as a small business owner that can come back to bite you. Learn about eight of them below.
1. Failing to Create a Website for Your Small Business
These days, there is really no excuse for small businesses not to have websites. Websites are no longer an exception, they’re the expectation.
Yet, a recent report revealed that about 27% of small businesses are still operating without websites. These businesses are likely hurting their bottom lines by failing to create websites.
If your small business is still operating without a website, you should take action immediately. With our company, you can have a website up and running within about one week.
Even if you don't know the first thing about web design, our experts will help you start a new website quickly, and your website will soon become one of your best marketing tools.
2. Ignoring the Importance of SEO When It Comes to Your Company's Website
In this day and age, simply setting up a website for your small business isn't enough. Once you create a website, you also need to make sure that you understand the importance of search engine optimization, or SEO.
SEO is a process that involves incorporating certain things into your website to make it easier for others to find it. By adding the right keywords, links, etc., to your site, you can help it rank much higher on search engine results pages and ensure that plenty of people visit it each month.
If SEO isn't a big part of your small business marketing strategy, you're making a big mistake. You'll be missing out on an opportunity to bring in so much more traffic on a regular basis.
3. Forgetting to Establish a Social Media Presence for Your Small Business
While it's important for small businesses to set up websites and use them for marketing purposes, it's just as important for them to establish a social media presence. Your company should have accounts on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
Social media has provided small businesses with a brand-new way to connect with customers. It's also enabled them to create unique brand voices that separate them from the pack.
4. Misidentifying the Target Audience for Your Small Business
Who is your small business's target audience? You can have the best small business website in the world and a wonderful social media presence, but if you don't know your target audience, all of your marketing efforts might be ineffective.
Before you begin employing marketing techniques for your small business, you should make sure you know who your target audience is. This will enable you to tailor your content to them, increasing the chances of them patronizing your small business.
5. Letting Negative Online Reviews for Your Small Business Linger
Whether you like it or not, people patronizing your small business will typically leave reviews for your company. They'll do it through several review sites, and their reviews will impact your reputation.
If you can rack up almost nothing but positive reviews, you won't have to worry about anything other than thanking those who have taken the time to leave reviews for your business.
But if you find that you've received a lot of negative reviews online, you should do something about it. You will either want to look into having these reviews removed if you don't feel as though they're legit or respond to these reviews to show that your company cares about customer input.
Whatever you do, you don't want to allow negative reviews to persist for too long, making it seem as though your company doesn't care about them.
6. Spending Too Much Money or Not Enough Money on Small Business Marketing
To implement your small business marketing plan, you will need to be prepared to spend money. You should create a marketing budget and use it accordingly.
Just be sure you're not spending too much or not enough money on your small business marketing efforts. As a general rule of thumb, you will want to devote around 7% of your gross revenue to marketing to make the most of it.
7. Relying on Outdated Small Business Marketing Strategies
Are you using some marketing strategies you learned about when you attended college in the early 2000s to run a small business in 2022? If you are, that alone will prove to be one of the biggest small business marketing mistakes you're making.
The marketing world has changed quite a bit over the last few years, let alone the last 20 years. So you should try to avoid using any outdated small business marketing strategies. You'll be asking for trouble if you take this approach to marketing.
8. Marketing Your Business Without Analyzing the Results
Marketing your business is very important, but it doesn't do you much good if you're not getting any positive results. That's why you should get into the habit of analyzing the results of your marketing efforts constantly.
If some aspect of your small business marketing plan isn't working, you must adjust it accordingly. Otherwise, it could lead to you spending a lot of time and money on a marketing strategy that isn't doing you much good.
Try Not to Make Any of These Crucial Small Business Marketing Mistakes
Marketing your small business effectively isn't always easy. You'll need to work hard to avoid making any marketing mistakes listed here.
We can help you steer clear of at least some of them by providing you with affordable website design services and digital marketing solutions. We’ll set you up with the website you need to get your small business marketing plan off the ground.
Check out some examples of our work and contact us today to learn more about getting a website for your small business.