In a world of instantly accessible information, it’s hard to know which marketing advice is actually useful, so we’re here to help. When planning your marketing strategy for your business, don’t fall for these misconceptions. They're more common than you might think!
“Focus only on new business”
It’s easy for businesses to get excited about all the new customers their marketing plans could and should bring. While that’s an important part of every marketing plan, don’t neglect your current customers. A lot of your marketing should be geared toward them. Loyal customers keep a business running.
“Advertising is marketing”
Advertising is important to any marketing plan, but it isn’t the only factor that matters. In fact, advertising techniques should only be tactics of one or two strategies that comprise an entire marketing plan. Whether you use traditional advertising like billboards, television commercials and radio ads, or more modern techniques like advertising on social media and Google, make sure you aren’t relying solely on advertising to help your business.
“Sales are down, so we need to cut our marketing budget”
We can see how it would be tempting to cut your marketing budget when sales are down, but that’s the exact opposite of what you should do. If your marketing plan is a good one, it should save your business when sales are down. If it doesn’t look like your marketing plan is helping, it’s time to reevaluate whether your strategies and tactics are actually helping you reach your goals. If they aren’t, it’s time for a new and improved plan.
“Our website is good enough”
Most people know that, these days, they need to have websites for their businesses. However, some people think that any website will do. This simply isn’t so. Having a healthy, user-experience-based website is crucial to businesses’ success. Websites are the key to healthy search engine optimization (SEO). Good SEO ensures that your website shows up on the first page of a search engine (Google, Yahoo!, etc.) search. If your website is built with the intention of being user-friendly, it will be built for mobile use. Almost 60 percent of internet searches are conducted on a cell phone. Your website is key to ensuring that your business is visible on the web.
“We can do it ourselves”
Most small businesses don’t have the resources to internally bring on the marketing expertise required to be successful. Because of this, a lot of businesses leave their marketing in the hands of their youngest employee, because “they’re young and they get technology,” but that’s not the way to go. You have to leave some things to the pros. You’re an expert in your industry, but not marketing, so consider investing in external help. When marketing is done well, you’ll see that the ROI is more than worth it.
Remember, marketing is crucial to your business’s success. Falling prey to one of these misconceptions could damage that.
