Six Marketing Mistakes New Business Owners Make
…And how to avoid them.
In today's post, I’m sharing six marketing mistakes that new business owners often make and offer practical solutions on how to avoid them.
Let’s be honest — there is A LOT to consider when starting a new business.
And I want to help you remove as much friction as possible! Keep reading and see if any of these resonate with you.
But first — I don’t think ‘mistakes’ are necessarily a bad thing! Mistakes are just new data points that help us figure out how to refine and grow.
Or, as Bob Ross says:
6 Marketing Mistakes New Business Owners Make
01. Lack of Clear Brand Identity
Creating a brand identity may seem like a time-consuming task, but investing in it at the beginning is important for long-term success.
Without a strong brand, people may struggle to connect with your business. Plus, YOU might struggle to keep a consistent tone of voice and messaging.
To avoid this, focus on defining your brand values, mission, and unique selling points.
Develop a cohesive visual identity, including a logo, color scheme, and typography that represent your brand's personality. Consistency is key to telling your story and resonating with your ideal clients.
What does that mean?
Use the same messaging, images and fonts across all your assets.
Be instantly recognizable when you pop up in your follower’s feed.
02. Ignoring Your Target Audience
Casting a wide net for clients may seem tempting, especially in the beginning, but ignoring your target audience can lead to trying to talk to everybody, which usually means you’ll end up talking to nobody.
To overcome this, take the time to understand your ideal customers. Create buyer personas, and identify their pain points, desires, and preferred communication channels. Craft your marketing messages and strategies around these insights to ensure your message resonates with your target audience.
Note: as you’re getting started, you might not know who your target audience is. That’s OK. You can always adapt and grow as your business grows.
03. Overlooking Your Online Presence
Focusing solely on your Insta account may be fine when you’re busy, but it’s limiting your potential to grow as a successful business owner.
Having a virtual home for your brand is crucial for reaching a wider audience and growing your business. Create an eye-catching professional website that showcases your services, optimize it for search engines, and create an intentional and user-friendly experience.
By creating a website for your business, you'll tap into a broader market and open doors to new opportunities and growth.
04. Inconsistent Marketing Strategy
Inconsistency can confuse your clients.
Building trust and recognition requires a consistent and cohesive approach.
Develop a marketing plan that aligns with your brand identity and target audience. Ensure your messaging, visuals, and tone of voice are consistent across all marketing channels. Content marketing part of your strategy (see more below)? Schedule regular blog posts. YouTube videos more your thing? Make a posting schedule and stick to it.
By maintaining a consistent presence, you'll establish trust with your audience, while making your brand more recognizable.
05. Underestimating Content Marketing
While it may save effort in the short term, underestimating the power of content marketing neglects a long-term strategy for brand authority and online visibility.
What is content marketing?
In a nutshell — content marketing is creating valuable and relevant content for your audience.
Listen, AI is changing everything, and what worked for SEO last year might not work next year.
The rules for sharing across platforms are always changing (because social media exists to keep people on their platform). But creating valuable content and actively working on over-delivering your special knowledge will always draw people to you.
It positions you as an expert in your industry, attracts organic traffic to your website, and builds trust with your audience. Invest in creating blog posts, videos, podcasts, or social media content (whichever YOU feel most comfortable in — and you don’t need to do all of them!) that educates, inspires, or entertains your target audience.
Consistently sharing valuable content will enhance your brand's reputation and drive organic growth.
06. Neglecting Analytics
Not dealing with analytics may save you time and headspace initially, but it also means missing out on opportunities for improvement.
Regularly analyzing metrics such as website traffic, conversion rates, and social media engagement is important for refining your marketing strategies and tracking data.
Use tools like Google Search Console or Facebook’s built-in analytics to gain insights into what's working and what needs adjustment. Create a Google spreadsheet or Notion template to track the metrics that are important to you.
By understanding your data, you can make informed decisions and optimize your marketing efforts for better results.
Avoiding these common marketing mistakes will help you build a solid foundation for success.
By investing time — and to be honest, likely money — in the beginning stages of your business journey, you'll be well on your way to creating effective marketing strategies that drive growth and help you achieve your business goals.
While some of these may require hiring a professional, buying a book or course, or just spending a ton of time of free resources, I’m a firm believer in smartly investing in your future and your business. The ROI will be worth it.
Success is a journey, so don’t be too hard on yourself as you’re getting started (or ever!).
Keep learning and adapting, and create your own path to success.
