There are still businesses who struggle with a lot of these topics so let’s get rid of these marketing mistakes once and for all. 

 

Not Having a Clear Goal

 

This is really important. You have to have an objective. Are you growing your email list? Do you want people in the store? Are you trying to drive traffic to your website? Are you wanting to increase brand awareness? What is your goal? It’s very difficult to get to a location if you don’t even know what that location is. 

Not Knowing Your Target Audience

 

When you are asked who your target audience is the correct answer is NOT “everyone”. The answer will look more like “single mom entrepreneurs over the age of 25”. That’s a pretty specific demographic. You need a clear understanding of your ideal customer so you can make a gameplan. 

 

Not Staying Organized

 

Marketing is all-encompassing and you have to stay organized. You have to have methods to collect information. You have to have a plan. The more organized you are, the more success you’re going to have long-term. Organization is a big deal. 

 

Not Personalizing the Experience

 

If you’re going to go to the trouble of sending out emails, put the person’s name on there. If you’re using Outlook or Gmail, stop. Eventually you will end up blocked. You need your email list in a program like Mailchimp or Constant Contact. There are many options available to manage your email list. I really like Mailchimp because it’s free to start off until you hit 2,000 subscribers. It’s very user friendly and hard to go wrong with. 

 

A good reason to use a program to manage your email list is that it allows you to segregate your list. You may want to separate your potential clients list from your current clients list. This is especially true if you’re a wedding vendor. Most brides get married one good time and they’re done. If you’re a photographer however you could market wedding photos before the wedding and family photos after. It’s just a good idea to be able to separate your lists into categories that make sense for you. 

Not Checking the Numbers

 

This is a big no-no. If you don’t test and look at the statistics you have no idea what’s working. Ok, I love that you’re sending emails but how many people opened it? How many people clicked through it? If you had 100 people open your email and no one clicked through, something is wrong with the content. If you have 90 people click through and no one gets the promotion then something is wrong with the promotion. You have to look at the numbers to know what’s working. 

 

Not Paying Attention to SEO

 

SEO is Search Engine Optimization and it is literally how people find you on Google. I’m still amazed at how many companies spend no time on this. 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. 50% of searches use long-tail keywords, which means they are 4 words or more. People are getting smarter with how they’re searching and you can capitalize on that with your SEO. Working those long-tail keywords into your blog could be life-changing for your business. 

 

How do you know if your SEO is working? Let someone check it. I love our webmaster. He’s great. He can take a look at our site and tell me what it needs and how much it would take to make it totally optimized for SEO. 

 

Not Being on Social Media

 

This is a huge marketing sin and there are still people who do it. You need to at least have the basic accounts, which are Facebook and Instagram. If you don’t have Facebook and Instagram you need to get them now. You have to post and engage with your audience. Not posting looks either careless or lazy. You don’t want to look either of those things. So if you haven’t posted on your Facebook since September, that’s not good. People will go check out your Facebook before they give you a call or make a purchase and if you don’t have a presence that looks very bad. 

 

Not replying is a huge mistake. You can’t have an audience trying to engage with you and you not reply. If they’re going to take the time out of their day to leave a comment, write a review, ask a question, or send you a message, you need to respond. It can be so difficult to get that new person to come to your page and you don’t want to lose them because you didn’t respond. 

Not Being Mobile-Friendly

 

Mobile traffic has increased by 222% in the last 7 years and now over 50% of all internet traffic is from mobile. Every year that number will go up. If your website is not mobile-friendly or your emails aren’t mobile-friendly, that isn’t going to work anymore. How can you know if your website is mobile-friendly? Look at it on your phone. If you can’t navigate your site easily, if it’s cutting off images, or if it’s not translating correctly, it’s time for an update. 

 

Not Using Video

 

Video, baby! You’ve heard me say it time and again. It’s still a thing. Videos are shared 1200% more than links and text combined. That blows my mind! By 2022, online videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic. That’s 15 times higher than 2017. Have you integrated video into your marketing plan yet? If the answer is no, you really need to. 

 

Not Choosing Quality Over Quantity

 

Choose quality over quantity every single time. I’d rather see you have 1 really good blog post per month than 4 that are just ok. Would it be great if you could post on Facebook 5 days per week? Absolutely. However, if you can only handle 3 that are high quality then just do 3. 

 

Not Taking Care of Current Clients

 

It’s always easier to go deeper than it is wide. It’s easier to upsell a current client than it is to get a new client so you want to make sure you are keeping your clients happy. 

 

Not Being Flexible

 

You’ve got to be flexible. For example, Covid. Covid knocked a lot of businesses on their tail this year because they didn’t pivot fast enough and they didn’t have a flexible plan that was easy to edit. Fortunately, our business was made for this because we deal with digital marketing. The transition to working remotely was fairly easy for us. Unfortunately, things weren’t so easy for many businesses, such as restaurants, which took a huge beating thanks to the pandemic. Once mobile apps combined with contact-free delivery of food, thankfully many of these businesses were able to start recovering. Once everyone leaned into curbside service things became easier. The places that refused to change their methods paid the price. 

 

Not Outsourcing and Ignoring Collaboration

 

This one makes me laugh because I totally did this. I was a solopreneur and thought I could do it all by myself. Wrong! Don’t get me wrong. If there’s something you want to learn you can learn it. Absolutely. However, would it be beneficial for me to learn to code? No, because it would take a lot of fo time and cost me a fortune. By the time I get ready to charge for it, it’s not worth it for me or the client. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or saying no to business, it’s time to outsource. Have no time for a personal life? It’s time to outsource. 

 

You don’t have to do everything by yourself so don’t. If you have the opportunity for collaboration, jump on it. If you have the opportunity to write a blog for a group or organization, or to be a contributor to another site, or to have someone be a guest on your live video, do it. Collaboration is a good thing that can introduce you to an entirely new audience. 

 

Not Automating When You Can

 

If you can automate it, do it. Zapier and If This Then That are both great ways to automate. You may not be able to push everything from Facebook to Instagram but you can push everything to Twitter. If you’re not set up to do that, set it up. 

Not Using Email

 

Statistically, across all industries, the return for every $1 you spend in email marketing is $42. That is a huge ROI. If you aren’t utilizing email marketing right now, you need to work that into your 2021 plan. 

 

Knowing is Half the Battle

 

Now that you know the marketing mistakes you could be making, it’s time to audit your online presence and see what areas you can optimize for 2021.