Common Marketing Pitfalls You’re Probably Making

So many things can impact a potential customer’s decision to interact with your brand – everything from the opinion of a friend or a social media influencer to to a personal experience from years ago. 

Without even factoring in those external factors, companies also have to figure out a way to stand out from their competition and create the sort of brand recognition that leads to customer loyalty. Most of the time, that means brands trying to position themselves as the ultimate solution to whatever problem their target might be facing.

It’s obvious that the merits of a specific product or service are very rarely enough to achieve success. More often than not, good marketing is the make or break factor in whether or not a company will be able to maintain growth, encourage loyalty, and become top-of-mind. However, most companies have trouble identifying their strengths and weaknesses, especially when it comes to marketing. 

To help you determine if your marketing strategy needs a makeover, we thought we’d walk through three of the most common marketing pitfalls we see companies making and how to course correct. 

Below-Average Brand Awareness 

If your target audience doesn’t recognize your brand, they won’t remember your brand when they’re ready to make a buying decision. Marketing strategies that target these people specifically and public relations efforts that broadcast your mission, brand promise, and company values can help to put your brand in front of the people that are most likely to interact. 

Questionable Customer Experience 

CX can be an important factor at every stage of the customer journey, from discovery to actual engagement – something that brands often forget about. Most commonly, we think of person-to-person interactions or the experience that someone has on a company website when we think of CX as a concept. But in reality, we need to start concerning ourselves with how the customer interacts with us from the very beginning. 

To do that, clearly define what makes you unique and why someone should stop and listen with your introductory marketing messages. Once you have that initial understanding and engagement, you can start to look at specific tactics like enhancing your website, sales processes, and other critical touchpoints. Clarity and cohesion are the keys here, from start to end of the customer journey. 

Low Conversion Rates 

Lots of things can affect your conversion rate, but a number that’s lower than you’d like often stems from some sort of issue in your messaging. Whether that’s not reaching out at the frequency you should be or reaching out to the wrong group of people entirely, completing an audit of your internal processes and understanding why people disengage can be invaluable. 

So, how do you actually go about revamping the parts of your process that could use an update? Where do you start? 

Engagement is crucial, so it’s where we’d recommend you look first. Working on strategies that keep your potential customer base interested in and excited about your brand are a great first step. Things like regular updates on internal goings on and loyalty programs that reward those that keep coming back help to bring people into the fold and give them a sense of ownership that more often than not, translates to long-term brand loyalty and even ambassadorship. 

Secondly, it’s important to leverage the data and customer information that’s already at your fingertips. You can use analytics to track customer behavior, make informed decisions, and quickly optimize your marketing channels to work more efficiently. 

Even if you think marketing is a weak point in your strategy now, it doesn’t have to stay that way. Investing a modest amount of time and money can drastically improve your customer acquisition rate, encourage long-term brand loyalty and support a healthy bottom-line.