No matter what kind of business you start, some marketing mistakes
are inevitable. But startups in particular must navigate a unique set
of marketing challenges: restricted budgets, limited resources and the
pressing need to build brand visibility.
Related: When You've Built an Audience You'll Know What Product to Sell
Knowing
when and how to invest in marketing for your business may be the key
ingredient to your startup’s success. Here are some common marketing
mistakes that every startup makes -- and how you can avoid them.
1. Spending money on 'big marketing' too quickly
You
may want to take the industry by storm, with a powerful ad or a killer
booth at the next trade show, but, whoa! You should really rein it in
and start slow. You don’t want to blow your budget this early in the
game.
If you do make the mistake of spending too much too soon,
the worst thing that could happen is . . . nothing. The next worst thing
that could happen is that your marketing turns out to be a huge success
-- but you’re incapable of meeting the resulting new demand.
“You don’t know what platforms work best because you haven’t had the opportunity to test them,” points out Jayson Demers, founder and CEO of AudienceBloom (and an Entrepreneur.com contributor). “You’re essentially gambling on what you think might work in your favor.”
Take the time to test your audience. Find out who your buyers are
and spend small amounts of money on hyper-targeted marketing. Focus on
content marketing and work PR angles, and use free video to spread your
brand message.
2. Speaking through the wrong channels
There
are countless marketing channels you can use to engage customers, but
which ones are right or wrong ultimately depends on who your audience is
and where you can grab their attention. Don’t rush ahead without
understanding your audience.
You’re likely to have more than one
target audience for your product, and each audience may have its own
channel. You need to figure out which channels will give you the best
return and which should be avoided.
3. Staffing up your marketing effort too quickly
It’s
tempting to want to bring in the best of the best to build your brand
by making an investment in high-caliber marketing staff, but don’t do
it. The only time you should invest in expanding your marketing team is
when you’ve exhausted all of your efforts and low-cost options, or you
have no choice because time commitments require you to focus on other
things.
Low-cost options here include agencies, independent
freelancers and interns. By using them, you’ll get more marketing for a
lower spend, compared to hiring full-time in-house marketing personnel.
Related: 7 Ways to Attract Millions of People to Your Brand
4. Spending too much time on brand perfection
Too
many startups want to change their name early on and completely
rebrand, or revise their website design over and over. Investing in
perfection too early in terms of your brand assets will yield few
results other than a waste of funds.
Then there is excessive brand
promotion. Hyper-focusing on your brand, particularly on social media,
is another no-no. “In response to such increased noise, many consumers
may respond by simply tuning out,” says Brett Relander,
founder of Launch & Hustle. “Even worse, they may disengage
altogether and even unfollow your brand, if they see that you post too
frequently without providing anything of real value.”
The best approach is to run a lean startup method.
Don’t delay launching a website just to get the copy or design perfect.
Once you’ve launched and start rolling, you can pick up more
information and make those tweaks and changes from a much more stable
position. You can also learn more about what your followers want to hear
from you regarding your brand and your industry, so you don’t drown
them in your launch.
5. Giving everyone a voice in marketing decisions
When
it comes to marketing, everyone seems to have an opinion, but the more
people you invite to have a say in the marketing, the longer it will
take to finalize anything. Recognize that you can never please everyone.
You
don’t need to pass marketing ideas around to every employee, family
member and friend. In the end, trust the people you pay to create your
marketing assets.
6. Chasing competitors
Part
of building a business entails recognizing what your competitors are
doing. Take cues from it, learn from it and find ways to do it better
than they do it. Don’t get caught in the trap of replicating their
efforts in hopes of getting more attention.
Not only will you
create more noise that customers will grow tired of, but you'll have no
idea how effective that marketing strategy has been in the first place.
Can you really trust that your competitor is doing everything right all
the time?
“Your competition may have a bigger budget and hundreds of employees, but don’t dwell on that,” writes Mike Kappel,
founder of Patriot Software. “They don't have your passion or your
know-how. They have nothing on your experience and the lessons you’ve
learned. Just focus on your competitive advantage -- your 'secret
sauce.'”
7. Failing to measure results
When
you do spend money on marketing, you need to track everything you do.
If you don’t know what kind of traction you got from a specific
campaign, you'll have no idea if you made a return on your investment.
In 2014, Internet advertising grew, from $133 billion to $194.5 billion. That’s a lot of potential lost money when you consider that 84 percent of businesses don’t track ROI in social media.
Every
campaign you launch online should use tracking codes/pixels or unified
threat management (UTM) codes. Print ads should use unique phone
numbers, special discount codes and custom URLs. Never be afraid to ask
customers how they heard about you, and always have a way to link every
customer back to a campaign.
Recognize that the mistakes described
above are completely preventable, but even if you do make them, they
won’t necessarily end your business. Just make sure you retool,
rethink and relaunch your marketing strategy as you move forward. As
long as you prepare accordingly and learn from your mistakes, you can
move on to better strategies and drive your business to success.
Related: How Marketers Should Connect With Mobile-Focused Consumers
