Starting a brand new business is always a thrilling experience. You are all giddy and excited about your venture and you just can’t wait to get the ball rolling. Sadly, this is where most of the digital marketing mistakes small businesses make start. Think about it, you don’t really want to have a business that started out with a bunch of mistakes, right?
Let’s just say it is borderline acceptable when small businesses make mistakes with regards to their digital marketing campaigns. Most of the time, small business owners are your ordinary guy who wants to have his own pizzeria or gift shop. Still, this should not excuse them from doing a bit of research about various digital marketing practices.
Small Mistakes Add Up
There are those who say, “Nah! It’s OK. I’m just a small business. One small mistake won’t make much of a difference”. Actually, it’s the other way around. Small businesses are gravely affected by the smallest mistakes because they are usually the ones with little to no financial margins to work with.
If you are starting your own small business and you are worried about being a failure right out of the gate, then read on and identify these four digital marketing mistakes that most small businesses make right off the bat.
Going over budget – You might be wondering why I put this as mistake number 1 when I could’ve just summarized everything up in the end. The thing is, this is a 2-part mistake – not making a budget and going over it if ever they created one. You should remember that keeping a budget is essential for small businesses. Spending is necessary in business but you should make sure that it is justifiable. For example, spending a bit more on a good website may be a great investment compared to just doing it yourself. Choose your priorities but always keep everything within the budget.
Giving up on social media – So you listened to your friends who told you to create your business account for Twitter and Facebook. You have the accounts and pages up but you don’t see people reacting to it. Usually, this is the point where most business owners give up on social media and dismiss it as useless or ineffective. Well, success in social media really takes time especially if you are starting out. Don’t give up just yet. Make sure that when people see your business page or Twitter account, they will see that you’ve been busy. Take an advice from an old cobbler from down my street, “You don’t close shop because people aren’t coming in. You clean up and make the place look good in case they do”
Expecting instant results – As what was mentioned above, most people fail in digital marketing because they want instant results. They take the bait of overspending on unnecessary website features because they expect it to be their ticket to ultimate internet traffic. They also give up on social media because they can’t get 1000 likes or follows in a month. Digital marketing takes time. Most of the more successful stories in digital marketing took years of building up before they became big. So relax, take it easy. Your small business is just starting out and so is your digital marketing campaigns.
Trying to do way too much at once – I’ve seen a number of clients and my friends, who kept adding one thing here to the website and another feature there, and some more stuff on social media, and some more things who knows where, instead of launching the website or digital campaign and finally start making some money, not just spending it. The beauty of digital marketing is that you can track the results, dig into details and understand what your audience needs exactly, and only then plan and add features as needed to get higher ROI.
If you believe you need more guidance with digital marketing, don’t hesitate to contact CRE8EGY and we can design and execute your digital marketing campaign up to the point where it becomes the money-making machine for your business growth.