Mistakes to Avoid

Back to: Business Planning 2 Marketing Basics: Video Course

Please note: the sound on this recording is a little low, you may wish to listen through headphones.

The Marketing Plan is often one of the most under-developed sections of the Business Plan when in actuality your Marketing Plan and implementation has the biggest impact on the success of the business. ​

​Here’s some mistakes first time business owners tend to make: ​

• Ignoring it (fear, ignorance, confusion, overwhelm). Marketing can be intimidating to a new business owner, and tends to be the thing that is thought about last in your planning, yet there are so many different resources available to you, there is no reason not to learn. Take things slowly, pick your marketing activities based on your research and then implement them one at a time, learning as you go.​
• Marketing to EVERYONE. Using scattershot actions. Marketing is about letting the right people know about your product or service in the right way and at the right time.​
• Believing flawed strategies eg the “Build it and they will come” myth, and “the best marketing is word-of-mouth” assumption. You will hear these comments all the time so it’s easy to believe them. The problem them is that to work, there are many aspects that need to be put in place beforehand. You have to have a product or service that people are clamouring for, you have to let your audience know you are open and available consistently over time. You have to be continually extending your network. For most new businesses, you may get a rush of interest that then tails off and you run out of contents or hungry clients. When this happens, you will still need to market your business to generate new customers. ​
• Giving responsibility for marketing to a 3rd party far too soon. There’s nothing wrong with using a 3rd party if you have the budget to do so, but waiting a while, until you really understand your clients is beneficial. Then you can brief the company based on your experience of who your ideal customer is and how or why they are using your products or services. There is a risk that if you pay for assistance too soon, you may get a off-the-shelf response that may not be as effective for your business as one which is tailor made for you.​
• Failing to measure your results after a particular campaign. Measuring results and adjusting your campaign strategy is the most effective way to learn about your particular market and how it functions to keep you in business. ​
• Giving up too easily. Marketing takes time. Don’t jump from one technique to another – or one social media platform to another. Learn about your audience, what they like, where they are, and apply consistency and regularity to your approach. Measure your results, get feedback, adjust, keep at it. Bailing before you’ve tried hard and for long enough, is, in the long run going to be a frustrating and expensive waste of time. 

​​I hope addressing these common mistakes here will help keep you on track as you work through your Business Vision activities. ​

Let’s wrap things up in our final video.