You’re an entrepreneur with a great idea, leadership skills, and an in-depth knowledge of your product or service. You build up your early stage company from the ground up and are used to making your own decisions and assuming full control of everything. But, when the time comes to market your product, things don’t go as well as you thought they would. There are likely to be a few reasons why - and identifying some of the common marketing mistakes made by entrepreneurs like yourself could be key to turning around your fortunes. Let’s take a look at some of the things you might consider changing.
Resist your ego
OK, so we get that you are super proud of your product. After all, you have been working on it for every hour of the day, possibly for months - even years. However, the reality is that your customers don’t care. What they want to hear is how your product is going to change their lives, not how great you think it is. Stop talking about your company, work out why your product or service is valuable to your customers, and focus on explaining the benefits, not the features or a long, drawn out company history.
Curb your search for new customers
Getting new customers for your business is an integral part of growing, of course. But don’t forget about those early adopters and buyers - it’s vital to stay in touch with them, serve them well, and keep their interests piqued. Far too many entrepreneurs focus on finding new customers and tend to forget about their current ones - and the result is that you will find your reputation takes a fair amount of damage.
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The DIY approach
As an entrepreneur, your focus is likely to be on developing your product and then running your business. And no matter how much you know about your product or service, when it comes to marketing it is a different story. You need the expertise to draw on, and it’s rare that being a jack-of-all-trades will work out for you. Think about the huge array of marketing channels you will need to use. There’s SEO, advertising, and making use of programmatic media . There’s website design, user experience, and measuring and analysis to consider, too. Sure, you can set your marketing goals in place - but when it comes to achieving them, it is almost impossible to do it as a one-person band.
A lack of budget
Marketing costs money. Forget what you have heard about Facebook allowing businesses to advertise for free - less than 1 percent of your posts will ever be displayed in front of your audience. It is essential that you have a budget put aside for marketing and spend that money wisely.
Marketing to everyone
Finally, no matter how amazing you think your product is, the reality is that it won’t be for everyone. It is critical that you are able to laser target your message to a specific audience, or ideal customer. Taking this route will help you get a return on your spend in a far more efficient and valuable way than you get with the scattergun approach. These mistakes are hugely common with many entrepreneurs and startups. Make sure you are doing all you can to avoid them, and you will give your new company the best possible chance of marketing success.
