Part of our job is to help you before something bad happens; to try and prevent an accident if we can, or in this case to provide some tips for Small Business Owners. LINK TO: (http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/09/24/the-10-most-common-small-business-marketing-mistakes/#4c02eed0262c )
We’re going to use this highly informative article from Forbes.com as a starting point, and then we’re going to use our expertise to take it a step further.
Mistake #1: Not updating your website. Is your information still accurate? Read your website carefully (and on a regular basis) to make sure that everything you’re saying is still accurate.
Post to your blog and YouTube page. Has it been six months since your last blog post? If so, you need to post one today. Make sure your YouTube page is up to date.
Mistake #2: Not expanding the capabilities of your website. Are you able to take payments online? Do you have the ability for visitors to access a real person from your site? This can be either via a dialogue box or an operator.
Mistake # 3: My final website no-no. Your site is not optimized. Do you have title tags and meta descriptions and do they match your website keywords? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, contact someone who does and pay them to do a website audit. This is imperative, especially if you rely on your website for new business.
Mistake #4: Not knowing where your inquiries are coming from. You’re putting a lot of time and money into your marketing. You need to know which of your efforts is working and which ones are not.
4a. Testing your creative to see which appeal messages really do “appeal.” As important to where your calls (or website clicks) are coming from is what ad or message is driving them.
Mistake #5: Not understanding your company and its position in the marketplace. Can you answer the following questions: What do you do? How is your company different from your competition? Where do you see your company next year? In five years?
If you can’t answer those questions in one sentence, then you have a problem. Clarity about who your company is and where it fits in the marketplace is mandatory to your success. Without it, you won’t last long.
Mistake #6: Your employees are improperly trained. I’m shocked at the number of times that I’m doing trying to do business with companies and their employees have little idea what their company sells, how it should be sold and their place in the sales chain.
It’s easy (although many companies don’t do it well) to teach employees how to ring up a sale or say “thank you,” but that doesn’t finish the job. Do your employees understand that they (the employees) make a difference in how the entire company is perceived? Are your employees empowered to help people beyond what the handbook says?
Teach employees that they’re important and they end goal is not getting the sale, but in creating a bond between the business and the consumer. Those customers will be return customers and take it from a guy who is a regular and has cultivated them for years…. those are the best customers to have.
We hope this helps to achieve greater success in your small business.
