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Now that you’ve finished developing your product, it’s time to unveil the startup you’ve been working on to potential customers. However, having a successful product isn’t enough to get your startup off the ground. It’s also essential to market it successfully to your target audience.
Here are a Few Common Marketing Mistakes to Avoid that Could Cause Your Startup to Ultimately Fail
#1. Not Asking Customers for Feedback
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a startup is offering a product or service that no one needs.
However, a huge reason most startups fail is that they don’t collect feedback to improve. Getting real-time feedback from customers can help improve your marketing approach and your product or service.
So, before you get too ahead of yourself, be sure to listen to feedback that your customers offer you.
#2. Doing Everything on Your Own
Online marketing changes more than you think; just because something happened last year, it doesn’t mean it will work as well today.
So, instead of trying to do all the marketing on your own, consider hiring experienced marketers that understand the market and can draft up a plan of what you need to do to get your startup off the ground.
Unfortunately, startups don’t have the time or money to learn from their mistakes. It’s essential that you make the right choices now.
#3. Not Having a Marketing Plan
It’s important for every startup to have a solid marketing plan, similar to how they need a business plan to get started.
Your marketing plan should be a written statement that details how you would target customers and reach your marketing goals as a company. The marketing plan should also talk about the different marketing techniques you’ll be using. For example, are you going to use Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, or SEO to market your products and/or services.
It’s also important to define your marketing goals, such as the number of customers you want to get by your first year.
By creating a marketing plan, you have clear goals and methods of reaching your target customers and becoming a successful company.
#4. Not Pursuing Prospects
Marketing efforts that pay off are one part being found by best prospects and another part finding best prospects for your business.
Fortunately, it usually isn’t too challenging to find prospects that should be investing in your products or services and target them with your marketing campaign to build the business.
#5. Marketing on the Wrong Channels
Of course, decades ago we didn’t have the marketing channels we have now. For example, we mostly used offline marketing channels like print, billboards, TV, and direct mail. But now, we have Facebook, Instagram, Google, blogs, and more.
However, now that there are so many channels to advertise on, it’s easy to be confused on which to use. It’s easier than ever to want to market yourself on every channel and spread your marketing strategy too thin.
One of the best ways to figure out what works and what to continue doing is to try out a few marketing techniques and see what offers you the best conversions.
If you have prospects that are professionals in your industry, consider using LinkedIn to reach out to them. It’s usually best to see which channels your target audience sticks to for the best results.
#6. Not Creating Engaging Content
Although creating content may seem easy, it’s a critical marketing strategy that most startups don’t invest enough time in. If you fail in content marketing, your business simply won’t see enough success.
Using content marketing can help connect your prospects to your products and services. However, it’s important to create interesting, lively content, or else your site visitors won’t spend too much time on your company’s website.
This is why it’s important to focus your content around a particular niche. Believe it or not, small businesses that blog get 126% more leads than those that don’t.
#7. Failing to Measure and Analyze Your Marketing Results
A big part of marketing strategies that a lot of startups ignore is the analysis. If you don’t measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, you will never know what works or how to improve. The company cannot move forward without this information.
Test, track, and measure every aspect of your marketing so you can learn exactly how to improve your strategy.
Luckily, there are tons of tools to help you perform analysis. One great place to start is with Google Analytics. This tool can aid you in tracking and analyzing key metrics.
#8. Paying Too Much Attention to Your Competitors
It can be tempting to want to keep a watchful eye on your competitors. However, spending too much time studying your competition can actually prevent you from being innovative and working hard to improve your product and marketing. Even if you don’t mean to do it, it can inadvertently lead you to copying their ideas.
Instead of copying your competition, find new ways to use your strengths and fill in market gaps. This comes in many forms like catering to a specific niche, improving your products and services, and creating new products.
You should also consider creative marketing techniques to stand out. This can involve creating interactive content, doing research studies, attending conferences, and more.
Thinking outside the box can set you miles apart from your competition, so much so that you won’t need to pay attention to them at all.
#9. Neglecting Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
Though digital marketing may seem like the most important piece of your strategy, you should not ignore traditional advertising methods. This includes word of mouth marketing.
In a survey conducted by Google, Ogilvy, and TNS, 74% of consumers cited word of mouth as a main influencer in their buying decisions. When your customers speak positively about your startup, it encourages people listening to try your products. This means more customers for you.
One way you can leverage word of mouth is by gaining testimonials from past clients.
Reviews can increase sign-ups and sales because they are effective at building trust. Your customers would rather hear about how great your product is from somebody who has used it as opposed to somebody who is trying to sell it.
This impartial review can communicate the benefits of your product or service without being salesy.
#10. Not Optimizing Your Website for Conversion
In the digital age, the company website must be the central piece of your marketing plan. Many startups come up short with their website. Their sites are not designed to sell products or services. When a new customer finds your site, they should be able to follow a captivating path that leads them to a convert from a visitor to a customer.
One of the best ways to drive conversion rates on your website is through the use of effective landing pages. This will help you reach personalized prospects. Landing pages are designed to help encourage audience members to actively take part in your company.
Though they can be used to encourage purchases, they can also be used to grow your email list, gain social media followers, distrusting eBooks, and much more.
It should also be noted that your website and landing pages should be designed to work well on mobile devices, too.
#11. Not Knowing Your Customers
One of the first and most important parts of creating a marketing strategy is defining your customer base.
You cannot accurately sell to new customers if you don’t know who they are. When your company tries to target everyone with their marketing, it comes off as confusing and off-putting to potential clients.
To avoid this, take the time to define and get to know your customers. Consider crucial data like their gender, age, race, geographical location, marital status and defining traits.
Figuring out your target audience can help you improve customer loyalty and open up new opportunities for growth later on.
#12. Neglecting Customer Service
These days, the marketing department of your company must work together with other departments in order for the company to grow and meet your goals. They cannot simply write copy and call it a day any longer.
Thanks to the internet and the way it has changed the marketing industry, customer service is an integral part of marketing. Even with successful marketing campaigns, word of poor customer support will spread faster and more severely than any positive aspects will.
Last Word
As a startup, there are a lot of variables to account for the success of your business.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of marketing mistakes that you can make, which can lead to the failure of your startup.
Hopefully, with the help of this guide, you can work on avoiding these mistakes to help get your startup up off the ground and keep it profitable for years to come.
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