Do any of us really know what we’re doing when it comes to marketing? Unless you went to school for it, chances are you don’t really know how you should tackle marketing your business. I’ve wasted so much money and time trying different marketing strategies before I realized what worked. If you’re starting out in your business, here are five marketing mistakes you want to avoid.
Trying to Be Everything for Everyone
A lot of my clients are trying to be everything for everybody. They are having too broad of a market or offer way to many services. And while initially this may seem like it makes sense, it actually hurts your business. When we have too broad of an audience we have too many people we’re trying to speak to. This ultimately ends up confusing your audience and they get lost in what you offer. You’ll also be headed on the one way train to burn out because you’ll have your hands in way too many pots. Most people would rather pay more money to someone who is doing something specialized than someone who’s a jack of all trades. So, if you’re offering too many different services, you might want to consider niching down. Focus on one or two key offerings that allow you to hone in on the struggles your potential clients are facing, and lean into that.
You Lack an Online Presence (AKA You Don’t Have a Website)
Controversial opinion here but you need a website. I don’t think that businesses can grow past a certain point without a website. And there are a surprising number of people who don’t have websites. You need to be able to send people off of social media to a place that you control. Websites allow you to collect emails, showcase testimonials, reveal pricing, and speak directly to people who are interested in what you offer. It’s not necessary to invest a ton of money into a fancy website when you’re starting out. Even a single page site or a landing page is better than nothing at all. People need the information that good websites have in order to make informed purchasing decisions.
You Only Talk About Yourself
Is your homepage essentially an “About Me” page. Your content should speak less about you and your credentials and more about the value you give.It’s about who you’re trying to service. Of course, it is important to talk about your story in order to build that like, know, trust factor, but you don’t always want to be talking about you. How do you help your clients? What are the problems they’re facing and how do you help them solve that? If you’re selling a product that doesn’t necessarily solve any problem, what feeling do you want to invoke when that product is purchased. Is your candle suppose to make be relaxed? Remind me that I need to prioritize self care? That’s what you want to be talking about.
You’re Not Focusing on Marketing Activities that Matter
Marketing is more than social media. You should be focusing on those $100 tasks not the $10 ones. What does that mean? One hundred dollar tasks are tasks that are more likely to convert leads into clients. Think networking, scheduling discovery calls, speaking on podcasts, or getting interviewed. These are tasks that for the most part, only YOU can do in your business. Ten dollar tasks are the ones you can outsource like content creation, social media posting, and email marketing. Yes, those are important for any business to function, but you want to put more time into the $100 tasks.
You Think You Need to be on every Social Media Platform
You’ll waste your time and energy trying to be on everything. Instead, focus on one or two platforms that you know your ideal clients hangout on and create valuable content there. Just because you love TikTok (ahem…I can scroll all day), doesn’t mean it makes sense for your business to be on it. Do you people hang out there. Do they use that platform to make purchasing decisions? If not, then it probably doesn’t make sense to be on it. Plus, any more than two platforms becomes extremely difficult to manage effectively.
We’ve all made marketing mistakes in our businesses. I’ve done every single on of the thing on this list. If you’re making these mistakes, think about what you can do to correct them. Market your business in a way that makes sense and in a way that’s going to help it grow.
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