Marketing Your Small Business – 6 Mistakes to Avoid

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Are you marketing your small business? It doesn’t matter which sector you are in because marketing can easily make or break your business.

This is one of the many reasons why brands spend so much time trying to develop a campaign that is effective as well as strategic.

marketing your small business

Marketing Your Small Business with Knowledge

If you want to make sure that you succeed in marketing then you need to make sure that you have a good amount of in-depth knowledge and you also need to know the mistakes to avoid too.

However, if you want to know even more, then simply take a look below.

1. Retargeting Everyone

The main mistake that people make is trying to target absolutely everyone. If you have a lot of bounced visitors then you may think that you need to target them and this is understandable, but this isn’t always the right thing to do.

You have to remember that not everyone comes to your site with the intention of buying from you. In fact, studies have shown that 58% of shoppers in the US abandon their cart purely because they weren’t ready to buy.

If you want to get around this then you need to make sure that you focus on your retargeting efforts, so you can make the most out of your resources in general. Retargeting is a key component for marketing your small business online.

In fact, studies have shown that 58% of shoppers in the US abandon their cart purely because they weren’t ready to buy. #onlinemarketing Share on X

2. Not Focusing on Traditional Marketing

Sure, social media is the future, but you should not forget about traditional marketing avenues. Direct mail is still a fantastic way for you to reach out to your audience and you would be surprised at how much it could do for your brand.

Traditional marketing is a fantastic way for you to get the edge you need, and it could help your brand when you run it alongside a digital campaign. If you need some help, then your marketing company can help by marketing your small business with it.

Traditional marketing is a fantastic way for you to get the edge you need, and it could help your brand when you run it alongside a digital campaign. #marketing Share on X

3. Not Investing in Social Media Marketing

Social media is easily one of the most powerful tools out there. Studies have shown that just two out of three small businesses aren’t taking social media very seriously.

The main reason for this is that they don’t feel as though they have time or the resources to do it properly. There’s a wide range of posts on how you can boost your strategy and if you take the time to go through them.

And once you learn those latest social media strategies, things change quickly with social media. It’s a never-ending cycle of learning and activating.

You’ll soon find that it is easier than ever for you to get a fantastic result out of your campaign without much effort once you find a working strategy.

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Studies have shown that just two out of three small businesses aren’t taking social media very seriously. #socialmediamarketing Share on X

4. Focusing on One-Sided Creation of Content

Content marketing is a billion-dollar industry. Virtually every single business owner is now spending more and more on the content so you have to make sure that you are doing everything you can to get ahead of the competition.

If you want to get better results from your marketing of your small business, then it is vital that you utilize any UGC that you have.

When you do, you will soon find that you are able to rocket your success and that you are also able to make your brand way more trustworthy too.

5. Throwing Money Away Marketing Your Small Business

The other mistake many people tend to make in the beginning is to spend countless money on their marketing. They try anything and everything without a plan in place.

Not only that, but they don’t keep track of what is working or not. For example, a local store sells products but doesn’t ask customers where they heard about them when they come into their store.

There needs to be a system in place to know how people are finding out about you. For online stores having Google analytics set up correctly will provide much of that information.

For example, a local store sells products but doesn't ask customers where they heard about them when they come into their store. #marketingmistakes Share on X

6. No Consistency in Marketing Your Small Business

Being consistent in your marketing is another key to success in marketing your small business goals. You cannot try one thing and another and another without being consistent and measuring each step of the way.

consistency in marketing your small business

Being patient and consistent with your marketing will pay off with measuring each step along the way!

Being consistent in your marketing is another key to success in achieving your small business marketing goals. #smallbusinessmarketing Share on X

Your Turn

What other no-no’s or tips would you add to this list? What are you doing for marketing your small business? Let’s discuss this in the comments below.

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Lisa Sicard
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21 thoughts on “Marketing Your Small Business – 6 Mistakes to Avoid”

  1. Gail Gardner

    Hi Lisa,

    My #1 focus for small businesses is customer loyalty. The best marketing is turning on-off buyers into loyal customers who buy repeatedly.

    This is fairly easy. If a business ships packages, tuck a hand-written note inside thanking them for their business.

    Or send a little gift. Consider offering a discount code to get them to come back and buy again.

    My #2 priority is Google My Business. Much as I hate to support their monopoly, small businesses can gain a lot of customers by having a great profile, posting weekly, offering coupons and especially by encouraging (but not incentivizing) reviews.

    1. Lisa

      Hi Gail. Loyalty is key! Most of my clients are all referrals from loyalty and are service-oriented. Does Google My Business work as well for online businesses? I see it working well for my clients with retail stores but not sure on my own. I post weekly too on them. Thanks for your valuable input on this one Gail. Enjoy your day there! 🙂

  2. Ragini Rai

    Hi Lisa,

    As you mentioned small business needs to have knowledge and balance between money spent on promotion or spending time.Some times specially for part time bloggers it becomes really difficult to dedicate time for personnel email monitoring.All service provider only focused to make money for themself instead of helping their client specially.

    Creating online presence for small business is quite easy as compared to market it.You were right when you mentioned many small business have more focus on creating contents and have less focus on marketing end up with no real growth.Creating quality content is in their hands.

    But in current days only quality contains have no real value due to overcrowd .Days have gone when many have grown due to only great contents.In google era many have grown before google with only good contents.

    SEO ghost is endless and you need to have consistency to overcome from it as per your advise.

    Really glad to go through your points and it makes real sense but in theory it looks cool to read but it is really not easy as it looks .It is really overwhelming to have yourself live in cutthroat competition era whatever area you choose.

    1. Lisa

      Hi Ragini, welcome to Inspire To Thrive. I love your point that it is easy to create it than to market it! That is so true. The same with SEO being endless, it’s like doing housework 🙂 Consistency is the key to it ALL. Thanks for your interesting input on this one and have a great day!

  3. Aayush

    Social Media is the biggest opportunity to grow for small businesses. Every business has potential customers on Social Media and the best part is most of these platforms are free to use. Thanks for sharing it, Lisa.

    1. Lisa

      Hi Aayush, they are free but if you want to succeed in business on them you have to spend a lot of time which = money or spend money on some ads on the networks. They are very crowded today compared to 5 or more years ago as well. So, you decide time or money 🙂 Thanks for coming by and have a great day!

  4. Dipanjan Biswas

    Hi Lisa,
    As you mentioned consistency is the key.

    I have only focused on Linkedin, but previously I used to just send connection requests and was not engaging myself in the platform.

    But after engaging myself with regular posts and commenting on other people’s posts I am really getting a good result.

    My post has started getting more views.

    Your articles are always so inspiring.

    Thanks
    Dipanjan Biswas

    1. Lisa

      I’m so glad to hear that Dipanjan. Consistency does make a difference. It works on just about all of the platforms and in life. I hope you have a nice day and weekend ahead 🙂

  5. Gaurav Kumar

    Hi Lisa,

    The biggest problem with small businesses is that they are too afraid of marketing. Rather than investing in marketing and promotions, they follow the word of mouth style marketing. This way, they cut themselves from the significant benefits of digital marketing.

    Even those who are doing digital marketing, they are not near to hyper-targeted marketing.

    Thanks for sharing!

    1. Lisa

      Hi Gaurav, Oh yes, I’ve seen that a lot over the years Gaurav. They don’t realize they are INVESTING not spending money. There is a difference in business. Thank you for coming by and for your input on this piece. Have a great day!

  6. Vishwajeet Kumar

    Hello Lisa,

    Amazing post as usual. Being a marketer we all made some mistakes and the point here is how quickly we identify the loopholes and start working on it. People often ignore the Traditional marketing. I really haven’t started any paid promotions on social media sites but due to strong networking skills, I am able to get some good traffic and conversions from it. Thanks for sharing these brilliant tips.

    Regards,
    Vishwajeet Kumar

    1. Lisa

      Thank you Vishwajeet. Yes, we do make mistakes along the way and that’s how we learn 🙂 Oh yes, I’ve done the paid and they really do help especially the straight ads on FB. You are most welcome and I appreciate your coming by on this one. Have a great weekend!

  7. Ryan K Biddulph

    All sensational points Lisa. Marketers last consistency, big-time, with their small business. Entrepreneurs seem ready to give up at the drop of a hat if things do not take off fast. Every owner needs to overcome resistance by being consistent and persistent in sharing their marketing message. Those who pass these tests market their small business effectively.

    Ryan

    1. Lisa

      Thank you, Ryan! You are right about that – I know many clients who don’t stick with things long enough, they lose precious patience. I think patience is becoming a thing of the past sadly. But if you can hang just a little longer you will see results and that can be applied to a lot of things today Ryan. Thanks for coming by and have a great rest of the day 🙂

  8. Rijhu Sinha

    Hey Lisa,

    A very useful and informative piece of article. Thanks Lisa once again you shared very helpful post.

    All the various points you discussed are really very important to consider to avoid when marketing your small business, most important one is not investing in Social Media Marketing. Thanks and keep sharing.

    Thanks & Regards,
    -Rijhu.

    1. Lisa

      You are most welcome Rijhu. Oh yes, many today think that social media is ALL free and it’s not. The social networks are in business to MAKE money. We can’t forget that one! Thanks for your input and have a wonderful day ahead 🙂

  9. Moss Clement

    Hi Lisa,

    All the six marketing mistakes you have here are negatively impacting ROIs. For the #1 pointer, having a niche and niching down is the idea of targeting a particular set of audience. But when a marketer fails to create a niche marketing, he ends up targeting everyone. And in the end, you have no business. Because for your business to thrive, one must have a defined buyer persona.
    Thanks for sharing!

    1. Lisa

      Hi Moss, I love how you explained how the niche effects ROIs here – thank you. Sometimes we try to target everyone and in doing so we target no one. Excellent point. Have a great day Moss!

  10. Rohit Dani

    Thanks for another great and helpful post. Get here some unique and new ideas to create better content. This will help me to produce more unique and better content for my blog that will help to engage more readers. ?

  11. Andrey

    The biggest of all these mistakes right now is Not Investing in Social Media Marketing. It’s like bypassing a huge portion of your potential audience.

    1. Lisa

      Hi Audrey, yes – many people think just posting on social media is enough. It’s not if you are in business. You have to do some ads from time to time. Otherwise, you must invest in someone who will spend a lot of time which costs money too. Nothing is really FREE. Thanks for coming by and have a great day Audrey 🙂

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