Marketing Mistakes That Will Kill Your Brand

If you’re reading this article chances are you have your hands on a brand or multiple brands, you might be very experienced in the marketing space or you might be new to it. When you get into it and you are completely new to it, there are possibilities you could make some mistakes and a lot of these mistakes can cost you a lot of effort, time, and money as well. I want to share some of those mistakes with you so hopefully, you can avoid those mistakes and start getting some results quicker for your brand.

Jumping Straight Into Tactics

It seems that a vast majority of business owners have this broad idea of what they need to do to bring a brand to market and it goes with something along the lines of this, they need to get a brand identity, they need to get a website, they need to get a handful of social pages, and then they need to start marketing their business. They jump on to the likes of Facebook ads and they start learning about the business manager and different campaign levels and how to get their ads live but the reality of it is that they’re not ready to market their brand yet. They don’t have a brand. Yes, they have a brand identity system. Yes, they have a website but does that mean they have a brand? No, they don’t, because they don’t have a brand strategy, they don’t have a marketing strategy either, they don’t have the rules set in place as to what they’re trying to achieve, how they are going to go about that, and they jump into the tactics and when things start to go wrong they believe it’s tactics that aren’t working or the Facebook ads don’t work. A lot of business owners do have this overarching belief that that’s what you need to do but before you go jumping into the tactics you need to have your ducks in a row, you need to have your brand sorted, you need to have a brand strategy, and you need to have a marketing strategy.

Broad Targeting

Small businesses are not defined enough target market for you. People don’t associate with small business owners. You need to define who it is that you are trying to target and get very specific so they can feel that you’re talking directly to them.

Creating Content to Tick a Box

Let’s be honest, there is enough content out there, we are not short on content. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves there’s not enough content in the world. There’s plenty of content in the world there’s too much content in the world. We do not need more content, what we do need is better content. Before you sit down to write a piece of content don’t just bash it out for the sake of it. Think about your audience, the challenges that they have, and try to create the best piece of content you can to help them.

Trying to Be Everywhere

There is a segment of the community that believes in the philosophy that you need to be everywhere as a brand but chances are if you’re starting or you’re building a small brand you will have limited resources and if you try to go out there and be everywhere and try to create Facebook page, a Linkedin page, an Instagram page, a Twitter page, Snapchat, TikTok, and every single page that you can get your hand on. If you try and do Facebook ads and Google ads, if you try to be everywhere you’re going to dilute your efforts. Of course, big brands have big budgets, armies of people that can help them to be everywhere, and of course, there are benefits to that but starting as a small business if you try to follow those big brands you’re going to trip yourself up instead focus on where your audience is most engaged and commit to going all-in on where they are most engaged.

Undefined Positioning

These days you have to mean something to your audience, you have to give them a reason. If you simply show up to the marketplace and try and offer to the market what’s already being offered by your competitors, if you regurgitate what your competitors are saying and try to be another presence in the market without offering your audience an alternative to what’s already out there that is the fastest way to blend in. You need to take the time to define the position that you want to own in the market and the mind of your audience and make sure your messaging communicates that to your audience and give them a reason to turn towards your brand.

Asking Too Early

Today the way we purchase as consumers has dramatically changed in the last 20 years. 20 years ago, brands were able to send out messages and expect those single messages to drive action and get results today, that has completely changed. It is very rare today for a brand to be able to send out a single message and get that to drive significant results. Today, you need to think about the modern consumer and how they digest information and it’s all about giving value. There’s a great book by Gary Vee called Jab Jab Jab Right Hook if you haven’t read it make sure you do. It’s still very relevant today although it’s many years old it’s all about giving that value, first showing up to your audience and showing them that you understand their challenges and give them that value time and again before you ever ask for that transaction.

Aggressive Landing Pages

If you do all the hard work and you drive traffic towards your landing pages when somebody gets there it is very easy to sense that there’s a sale going on. Of course, we all know subconsciously there is a sale but you don’t have to be aggressive with your massive headlines, colors, and content. Let the copy do the work. The copy is the most influential part of your brand and if you take your time and craft a well-defined message then that’s what will do the work for you. Tone it back a little bit with your aggression on your landing pages and let the copy do the work

Undefined Messaging

Most brands don’t have a strategy they haven’t take the time to define exactly who their target audience is and how they’re going to be positioned in the market. If you don’t have a defined method for your messaging then going into the market is a big mistake. Marketing will kill your brand if you haven’t taken the time to define your brand messaging.

Ignoring the Value of Repeat Business and Brand Loyalty

One of the hardest tasks in branding and marketing is getting that attention. It is hard to get that attention because there are so many competitors and you know this yourself, you see these marketing messages all over the place, everyone is screaming for your attention. That attention is the hardest thing to get and once you achieve that attention you still have a long way to go to convert those prospects into customers and what most businesses do is they treat their sales as a one-night stand. They think they are only after the sale and once they get that sale they move on. They don’t take the time to realize that the sale they have just made is far more likely to buy more things from them than chasing more new business.

Overlooking Micro Commitments

Today you need to seduce your audience. You can’t just expect to go in for the kills straight away you need to take the time to nurture them. You need to raise brand awareness. Don’t go in for the kill straight away, take the time to nurture them, write a blog post, send them to that blog, and allow them to digest that. Send them to a video, allow them to digest that, and take the time to give that value time and again and these little micro-commitments are far easier to commit to by a consumer than a sale so give them multiple opportunities to make those micro-commitments and each micro commitment will guide them along, it will train your audience to say yes to more things from you and they are all opportunities for you to give value.

Look on the face of it, modern marketing is easy, right? Everybody has access to a laptop or a phone and all you need today are a Facebook ads account and you can get your message in front of those people quite quickly at a pretty cheap rate as well but it is the nuances in marketing that is the difference between success and failure. If you don’t understand those nuances you are going to make tons of mistakes. Those mistakes will cost you time, effort, and money. Make sure you try to understand the mistakes that you should avoid and the next you go to write a piece of content, filter them through those mistakes, make sure you are avoiding them. If you do you will achieve far greater success much quicker with your marketing.