Everyone’s an expert in hindsight. It’s easy to look back at a situation and find the moments where mistakes were made.
When it comes to marketing, there are so many variables to consider – and so many differing opinions that simple mistakes can occur. While a few minor oversights are common in any industry, the ramifications of these mistakes can mean damaging your brand’s reputation, losing business, and finding your company left in the dust of your competitors.
Below are four of the most common mistakes that businesses make in their everyday marketing practices.
Mistake 1: Poor research
It may sound unbelievable, but the sad truth is that many businesses are still not conducting thorough research. Why? Well, sometimes a brand has a very clear idea in their heads of where they want to go – and who they want to appeal to.
If the research shows them that a different path may be best, some companies are prone to bury their collective heads in the sand and cease digging deeper into those statistics.
Half-hearted research leaves potentially huge information untouched. If you’re not willing to conduct it properly, you’re barely scratching the surface of the earning potential at your fingertips.
Mistake 2: Lack of quality control
In the rush to meet a deadline or post a blog in time, gaps emerge that can cause businesses to miss blatant errors in content. This can be anything from spelling mistakes to poorly edited sentences. Either way, this is one of the most damaging mistakes a business can make.
Marketing is a reactive process. Sometimes a topic just hits and your business needs to have reactive content to remain relevant. But ask yourself: Is posting a blog so quickly worth it? All it takes is an extra half an hour to stop, proof, and edit that post. One mistake can halt a reader and have them scrolling elsewhere in seconds.
Mistake 3: Making assumptions
The days of having to make wild assumptions about the likes, needs, and demographics of your customers are over. With so much information at your disposal now, there’s really no need to put guesswork into the mix at all.
However, perhaps just out of habit, many businesses will still cling stubbornly to outdated assumptions about what their industry wants and how to go about delivering it.
Listening is an art in this day and age. Take the time to read comments online and be humble enough to admit your assumptions may not always be correct.
Mistake 4: Refusing to adapt
Trends and times change. Change is good – essential, in fact. Not only does it help you to stay relevant in the eyes of the world, it offers your business the chance to reflect on how you adapt to those changes – for the benefit of your customers.
If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that businesses unwilling to embrace change are destined to fall behind. While you may have your core customer base, you’ll lose sight of exciting new opportunities and your brand will become outdated.
