Thanks to the modern accessibility of the internet, and all the resources that come with it, the prospect of starting a small business is now more appealing than ever. While it’s certainly easier to launch a product or service these days than it has been in the past, it’s important to remember that the large majority of ventures fail within their first 18 months. One of the biggest reasons for business failure is big marketing blunders. Here are some of the most common ones you need to avoid.
Neglecting Proper Research
From Pexels
All too often, bright professionals feel that they’ve stumbled on a unique, promising business idea, take out a loan, adjust their personal finances, and a couple of months later they have a business running. Soon afterwards, they have the sudden, horrible realization that their idea isn’t all that unique, there’s no market in their area, or there’s some other obstacle holding them back from the kind of success they’re gunning for. Before you invest a single penny, you need to be certain about the market you’re thinking of tackling. As with anything, the internet is a great bank of information to judge how original and lucrative your idea is. If you don’t have a market, the greatest ad campaign in history won’t save you!
Lacking Flexibility
Once you’ve done a little market research, and pinned down your ideal buyer persona and your main competitors, you’ll have a pretty good-looking marketing strategy in place. Just make sure that this plan doesn’t hinge too much on certainty. You’re always going to have to deal with the one big variable in any business niche – the market itself. While many other things can be predicted and measured, people are extremely unpredictable. This is part of what makes digital marketing so interesting and challenging! You can never really predict how an audience – any audience – is going to behave, and what they’re going to want to invest in. For this reason, you need to make sure you’re staying as flexible as possible in terms of your branding. There’s nothing wrong with re-assessing your business model and strategy in the light of market evidence – just make sure you don’t warp things at the smallest change!
Copying Competitors
From Pixabay
As I’m sure you’re aware, a big part of marketing your business is going to involve keeping tabs on your close competitors, and understanding what they’re doing. Yes, you should be taking cues from your competitors’ behavior, and figuring out ways you can beat them at their own game. However, it’s a big mistake to replicate their marketing at every turn, hoping that it will gain more attention for your company. First of all, this will only add to the noise that’s already out there, and end up boring your customers. Furthermore, it will make it so much harder for you to gauge just how successful the campaign was to begin with. Your closest competitor may be getting more business than you at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can trust them to get everything right on the first attempt!