We get asked “what marketing should I be doing” on a regular basis. For small businesses that have been trading for some time, perhaps a better question is “what should I stop doing?”.
Why? Because there are many things that people do that they really shouldn’t. Activities that are harming their marketing performance and wasting both time and money. Something that is rarely abundant for them. Here’s what we consider to be the top 11 things that small businesses do that you really shouldn’t…..
1. Stop marketing to everyone
Whether you use the word everyone or anyone, you’re still causing problems for yourself. To target everyone you have to make your marketing messages so generic they won’t resonate with anybody.
Be specific. Identify who your Ideal Clients are (you will almost certainly have more than 1), determine what you need to say to them and develop a marketing strategy around each.
2. Stop creating more and more content
Content is good, but if you’re simply creating it to add to your site, and then not doing anything with it, you’re wasting time. Your content needs to have a specific purpose and be used for that purpose.
3. Stop doing what your competition is doing
Just because your biggest competitor is doing Google Ads (for example) doesn’t mean you have to do it. Do you know if it is working for them?
Doing what everyone else is doing will not make you stand out. You’ll be lost in the noise and never stand out. So think about what you can do that is different and will help people spot you and engage with your marketing. Here’s some ideas to help you stand out.
4. Stop chasing Likes
You cannot pay bills with Likes, Impressions and Hearts! Getting your content seen and engaged with by a few potential clients is far more valuable to your small business than 1000s of impressions by irrelevant people.
5. Stop talking about your business
Nobody cares what you do! What they care about is how you can help them. They care about the experience you have and they care about the proof you can provide that shows you can deliver on your promises. More on this here.
Is the first word on your homepage “We”? That one word is losing you business.
Refocus your marketing messages to show you understand your target audience and you can help them.
6. Stop saying you’re the UK’s Leading Provider of….
We once did a survey of IT support companies and found 29 that claimed to be “London’s Leading IT Support provider”! Unless you can really justify the claim, nobody is going to believe you and it is likely to damage your reputation more strengthen it.
7. Stop changing your marketing too soon
Constant changes to your messaging, your content strategy and your marketing channels will burn through your budget with little return. Marketing takes time to grab the attention of your target audience and get them to get in touch. Some more than others:
Networking
Networking is all about trust. You may get lucky and generate a lead from the room at your first event, but the real value is when you’re getting referred by the people you’ve build relationships with. Depending on what you sell and your target audience, that can take months, or even years.
Trade shows
You meet lots of people, but few will be in active buying mode. Trade shows and exhibitions are about adding to the top of your pipeline and the real value is in the followup.
Social media
This is just networking online. See above
Email marketing
Just 3% of people are in active buying mode at any one time and you have limited information about when the people on your mailing list will enter that mode. Seasonality may help if its appropriate to your business, but not every business is seasonal.
8. Stop treating your website as an online brochure
Your website has to help people become clients for your small business. Every piece needs to guide people towards what you want them to do, whether that is buying online or getting in touch.
Before making any changes to your site, work out how you want people to move through the site and develop a great user experience along that path.
9. Stop marketing to yourself
You are rarely your ideal client, so why should your marketing be what you like? Whether its your branding, your marketing messages or the language you use, keep your target audience at the front of your mind at all times. Will they like the marketing you are producing and sending out? More on this here.
10. Stop relying on word of mouth
“I get all my leads from referrals so I don’t need to do any marketing” is a phrase we hear regularly. Referrals are great, but they are difficult to control and erratic. You don’t know when they are coming in so you cannot plan your business accordingly. More on this here.
Your marketing needs to both give the referrals what they want to see, and help other potential clients discover you.
11. Stop not measuring your marketing
The quickest and easiest way to work out what you should being doing is to start measuring what you are currently doing. Work out whether it is working and then adapt your marketing strategy accordingly.
This will make you ask a potentially uncomfortable question: “why am I still doing this?”
An independent marketing review will identify what you need to stop and what you should consider starting. If you would like SME Needs to look at your marketing and identify what you shouldn’t, as well as what you should, be doing with your marketing, get in touch.
