Remington Begg
If "successful marketing" or "return on investment (ROI) numbers" are topics you try to avoid, you're not alone. For most small businesses, and even some larger ones, marketing campaigns produce disappointing and bewildering results. They don’t know what they are doing and if it is working or not. It doesn’t have to be this way! Marketing is a much-needed part of every business, and you shouldn’t look at it as an expense to stay away from or something to do as cheap as possible. If you want to succeed in marketing, avoid the following slip ups:
You Attempt to Do it All.
Yes, I know: you know your business better than anyone. But do you know marketing? I mean do you REALLY know how and where to reach potential customers and convince them to buy from you? If you want to build an addition onto your home would you do it yourself or hire a professional? I mean, you know your home better than anyone, so why not do it yourself? Now it seems ridiculous. Whether you choose to hire a professional agency or have an in-house staff work on your marketing efforts, it can’t just be you and your ideas. You need someone else to bounce off ideas and do the work professionally, so your company doesn’t end up on a list of “Who let this happen???” listicles on BuzzFeed.
There’s No Measurable Goals or Results.
Marketing plans struggle to be actionable if they’re based on poorly defined, vague goals such as becoming the "best in town" or "most popular.” How do you define these intangible goals in measurable terms? How will you know when you've achieved these goals? If you can't track the results of your programs, you won't know if you have failed or succeeded in accomplishing your goals. Instead, stick to this simple rule: If you cannot measure it, don’t use it as a marketing goal. Enough said.
And the number one reason marketing campaigns fail…
It is You-Focused, Not Customer-Focused.
Modern consumers want to build trust and interact with a brand before their purchase, not be pushed into it before they are ready. A significant problem with traditional marketing is that it's product centric. This is a big difference in how an agency that adheres to the inbound methodology strategizes. Marketing should be customer centric! At Impulse Creative, we do this with inbound marketing techniques that are focused on specific customer profiles called "buyer personas". By understanding what your best customers need to know before they buy, we can build campaigns that will grow your business. There’s no room for guessing, and little room for failure.
Many business owners fail at marketing, yet continue to do the same tactics over and over. Wasting more money and more effort on a marketing campaign that doesn’t bring solid results is more than just crazy, it’s detrimental to your brand. If you are ready to find out what a solid inbound marketing strategy can do for you and your business, download our free ebook today!
