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Marketing mistakes small businesses want to avoid

A “proper” marketing plan can get bring you and your customers together. “Proper” means without mistakes.

Here are a few marketing mistakes that you can and should avoid, especially for small businesses.

Mistake 1: Not testing what is working

To develop an effective marketing plan, you need to doing market research and testing to determine the performance of each tool that you are using. You can simply get feedbacks from your customers like “how did you find us?” kind of questions. If majority of them said Google, you know that the search engine optimization is working well. If none of them mentioned about newspaper, then maybe you can consider removing the ad from newspapers. That will save you a pretty decent sum of money.

Mistake 2: Not having a USP

USP, unique selling proposition, is something that your small business must have. It is what makes you stand out among your competitors. For example, in the shoes industry, everyone sells shoes. But what makes TOMS different? It is their USP, the “one for one” concept – “With Every Pair You Purchase, TOMS Will Help a Person in Need”. Every small business should think of an USP and use it in every marketing material, as it is a foundation of your business.

Mistake 3: Unable to retain existing customers

Repeat purchases is one of the strongest element that contributes to your revenue. Failing to stimulate purchases can be very impactful on your sales figure. Bear in mind that retaining existing customers require less effort and costs as compared to getting new customers.

Mistake 4: Unable to view things in the customers’ point of view

Your competitors should be the ones identified in the customers’ point of view. Who will them buy from if they don’t buy for you? Those are your real competitors. What you think may be different from what your customers think. Are your products or services really meeting customers’ needs? Is that what they want?

You want to market correctly and effectively, as marketing is something that costs you some amount of money and a lot of effort in planning. Our small businesses marketing consultants in Sydney and Melbourne are confident in helping you to avoid these mistakes at all cost and work out the right marketing plan for you.