The Most Sinful Marketing Blunders of New Entrepreneurs
It is normal for new entrepreneurs to make mistakes. After all there is no fixed guidebook on how to do well as a new business owner. In this complex game of trial and error, some mistakes can cause long-lasting damage to the business. More often than not, these mistakes are made in the field of marketing. Described below are some of the most sinful marketing errors that new entrepreneurs can make –
Overlooking the Brand
Trying to market a company without establishing a brand is similar to calling people for a job interview without laying down the address of the office. For new companies, the brand serves as a basis of distinctiveness for customers to identify with. A proper brand must emphasize what the business stands for. It has to have a direct impact on the sort of commercial messaging that is being put out by the companies during marketing. The brand identity has to be at the center of all content being put forward by the business be it through the website or through social media posts.
When potential customers see the brand, or observe the logo of a company, they must be instinctively able to pick up on what area of expertise that company offers. Based on these first impressions, they can then form an educated opinion regarding the business. Marketing is all about brand building. Without this instant connection and association with the brand, all marketing content and materials are pointless. In addition to that, the more connections a business builds, the more acquainted the customers become to the brand, and the chances of them doing business with you vastly increases. Without a proper and consistent brand presence, new businesses can find building relationships very difficult and all the hard work that you put into the other aspects of your company can go to waste.
Marketing to an Indiscriminate Audience
The first principle of marketing is to choose who the product or service needs to be marketed to. A lot of new entrepreneurial ventures make the easiest yet most commercially harmful choice – have an open marketing strategy that appeals to every possible consumer group. Marketing to everyone is similar to shooting an arrow in the dark. Without a proper target audience, even using good platforms to garner a lot of attention is not enough.
Excessive Investment
Effective investments in a promotional campaign call for a balanced approach. Investing excessive money just to start off a lot of campaigns, before even realizing who exactly the target audience is and understanding what exactly they want from the brand, can make a lot of marketing efforts go to waste. It is normal for a new business project to not know what platforms work the best for their brand simply for the reason that there hasn’t been enough time to test them. Spending without a guarantee of returns is not advisable in marketing at all!
Identifying these errors is the first step to redemption for businesses. Entrepreneurs must stay away from these mistakes to make their venture a successful one.
Summary
It is quite natural for entrepreneurs to commit mistakes but sometimes certain blunders can lead to long-term damages. Given this, entrepreneurs should avoid mistakes like excessive investment on marketing endeavors, not establishing a proper brand, and not setting up a proper target audience for the product or service in question.
Reshali Balasubramaniam
Head of HR, HR Counselor and adviser at https://work.lk/. Do you offer a Service? Signup for an account at work.lk