Do your marketing efforts feel eerily similar to the plot of the Groundhog Day movie where they just run on repeat? Don’t let yourself keep making the same marketing mistakes over and over again. Do your marketing efforts feel eerily similar….alright we won’t play with you, moving on!
The most important point is to observe what you’ve been doing for the past couple of years. Make note of what was successful and what didn’t give you the results you hoped for. Learn from your mistakes and improve upon them to better your 2018 marketing.
What to do to avoid the same marketing mistakes:
Your first step should be to do research and analysis on what efforts worked and what didn’t in 2017. Pull your Google Analytics report, run your social insight metrics, make note of where your referrals came from. Do a comparison analysis of where your traffic was generated from and where you hoped it came from. These reports show great detail that’s extremely useful. If you aren’t tracking the analytics given to you, that could be the first mistake to not make again.
Evaluate your marketing strategy. Did you use a healthy balance of content marketing and advertising? “Content marketing is not advertising. In advertising, you’re telling a short story about what the product is and hoping it seduces people into buying it. In content marketing, however, you’re establishing a relationship with your target audience, trying to gain their trust through the power of education.” Based on your research and analysis you should be able to determine what your target audience liked. What got them engaged? Did they prefer the ads, selling your product or service? Or were they more active on the posts where you shared insightful content? Maybe you just did one or the other and if you didn’t get the activity you should have, it’s time to initiate the marketing you didn’t utilize.
Truly understand who your target market is. Track your demographics. Your audience can change as your business grows and develops. Don’t assume the target market you started with when you first opened your businesses is still the same years later. Make note of the audience engaging in your marketing efforts, research their habits and adjust your marketing to their interests. The ones engaging are the ones that will help spread the word, so focus on their likes and needs to increase your market reach.
Broaden your marketing channels. Take full advantage of the tools in front of you. Don’t just focus on one avenue or you’ll be missing an entire marketing demographic. You have to step outside your comfort zone and try new things or change up your routine. What worked in the beginning may not work today. If it is still working, it may need tweaking. Update your website, blog, create appropriate social media profiles and maintain them. Consider print marketing, ENewsletters, and local advertising. Research all avenues to determine where your audience is active and where it makes sense for you to push your efforts for maximum results. You may have to do a little trial and error but it’s worth it to find the perfect combination of marketing for your business needs.
Ask for help. If you realize this is way over your head and you’ve lost track of where your marketing should be and how to do it right, go to a professional. A professional marketing team will take the right steps to assess your current efforts, understand your goals, and show you how to move forward. It’s ok to focus on what you know best (your business) and allow others who know marketing to help guide you in the right direction.
Entrepreneur.com shared key takeaways from 2017s embarrassing social media fails:
- Double-check everything. It’s only going to take a few minutes to check your post for typos, factual inaccuracies or hidden implications before it goes out. Have someone in your office on standby to proofread everything your company sends out. Catching just one bad mistake will make all that effort worth it.
- Invest in better security. When your account is compromised, you lose all control. Invest in better security measures, including training for your employees so they’ll choose, rotate and maintain stronger passwords.
- Remember that politics is a dangerous game. When you start meddling with or taking advantage of people’s beliefs, you’re taking a serious risk. If you end up on the “wrong” side, you’ll face heavy backlash. Even if you’re on the “right” side, if you’re seen as insensitive or inaccurate in your presentation, people will condemn you for it.
- If you make a mistake, admit to it. Every business is going to send out an erroneous or harmful tweet at some point. The ones that stand to recover easily are those that immediately and humbly admit to their mistakes, and try to make up for them.