Business marketing is an ongoing process which every company should undergo in order to be successful. In this competitive world, effective marketing and continuous funding via business loans has become the norm. Most of the business entrepreneurs think that they know everything about marketing. However, in reality, the marketing concepts are filled with many misconceptions and the sad part is that many entrepreneurs believe those misconceptions to be true. Here’s a list of the most common misconceptions among small business owners.
Businesses do not Market Existing Customers
Marketing the small business to already existing customers is as important as marketing to the potential customers. For small businesses, customer retention is a key factor that determines the expansion and growth. Retaining your customers and always maintaining a warm and positive relationship with them helps you build a concrete base of loyal customers. Moreover, marketing to already existing customers can be less costly, when compared to marketing to potential customers. As per the studies, it cost almost five times more to lure new customers when compared to keeping existing customers.
You need to understand that your customers do much more than generating revenue, they are actually a part of your brand. Also, understand that the strategies you use for the existing customers should be different from that used for the potential customers.
Businesses Do Not Market Online When They Do Not Sell Online
We are living in a technological world and we are so used to it. We go online searching for information, reviews and many more, and for this reason, it’s important for any business to have an online presence. Any business looking to grow and cope up with competition should invest in online marketing.
In the olden days, people usually filtered through the Yellow Pages or Yelp entries to find out the services and products they’re looking for. However, today, it has become so easy for the users. All they have to do is type or say a few keywords to their phones to get the search results they’re looking for. Making use of effective and efficient digital marketing strategies can help put your business in front of your competitors. For example, in search engine result pages, so that your target audience will be able to find you first while searching for the services or products you offer. SEO or search engine optimization is one of the digital marketing strategies that can help your business rank high in the search results.
Businesses Cut Budgets When Sales Are Low
Often times, business owners cut down their expenses when sales are low. The unfortunate thing is that they also trim the marketing budgets. Marketing is an essential part of any business promotion that can improve business sales significantly. Without proper marketing strategies in place, the business sales can really suffer. Therefore, cutting down the marketing budgets when business is low is a counterproductive strategy. It’s important for business owners to be careful and frugal with their spending, but failing to market their business can be detrimental, as it can speed up the decline of the business.
If you find that the sales of your business are going down, then you need to reevaluate your marketing strategies. Evaluate things like the way you communicate your messages. Find if your messages have too many jargons and if your targeted audience receive your messages properly. Understand that marketing is an integral part of any business, and cutting down the marketing budget is not at all a good idea. Instead, you need to focus on ways to improve your marketing strategies to increase sales.
Video Content is Optional
It seems that the demand for video content is on the rise and business entrepreneurs need to keep up with the increase in demand. As per a study conducted by HubSpot, about 54% of the users wish to see more video content and promotions from their favorite brands. People will be able to understand the details faster via video content rather than written text. Moreover, videos are really engaging and they fit very well on all devices and platforms used by the audience.
However, many business owners think that sharing video content is a costly way of promotion. This isn’t completely true. You can make use of software like Videoblocks or Adobe Spark to make your business promotion videos, or you may hire freelancers to do the job for you. The only thing is to ensure that the message you convey is creative and informative and is directed towards your target audience.
Marketing Strategies Are Not Needed as Ads Are Already in Place
Many entrepreneurs these days use the terms advertising and marketing interchangeably. However, both of these terms are very different from each other. Understand that advertising is only a part of marketing and it is meant to go hand in hand with the various marketing strategies. As per the experts in marketing, advertising can be a really easy way to understand and evaluate how your target audience receives your services or products.
As a business entrepreneur, you should not run ads without any thought, as it can be a complete waste of time and money. You need to combine your ads with various marketing strategies like social media marketing, search engine optimization and so on.
