This Halloween, don’t let terrifying marketing mistakes frighten you. It’s a critical time for many businesses — the “home stretch” to end-of-year profitability. And right now, it’s more important than ever to tune up your marketing to fire on all cylinders. A good way to start is by avoiding these six common missteps.
1. Not Defining Your Message
This is the cardinal sin of marketing. What is it about your business that sets it apart? This is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). The USP that made Federal Express a global giant is famous — and fabulous: “When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight.” Strive for that level of brevity, clarity, purpose and value.
2. Unclear Goals
A lack of clear, measurable goals and metrics to gauge success can derail even the most cutting-edge marketing strategy. Saying you want to earn “more” isn’t specific enough. How much more? Are you planning a seasonal sale and want to increase traffic to a landing page to boost revenue by 10 percent? Set up benchmarks to measure progress. If you’re looking for traffic to that landing page, make sure you’re able to accurately track where your visitors come from. Decide what conversion metrics you’re using (e.g., traffic, sales, return customers, high-ticket purchases) and track them across all of your efforts.
3. Big Dreams with a Bare-Bones Budget
Not committing to spend enough to reach your goal is a fatal error. Test your campaign early. For example, if you’re using email to spread a link to your sales landing page, do a small test run and measure the response. Now use that response rate to gauge how many emails and click-throughs are necessary to reach your traffic or sales goals and budget accordingly.
4. Too Many Eggs, Not Enough Baskets
Committing all of your budget on one digital platform can lead to some scary surprises, like a massive hack that sidelines your account — and your marketing efforts along with it. It can also lead to missed opportunities that you’ll never have the chance of discovering. Working more than one marketing channel at a time is a strategy with better odds of working for you.
5. Too Many Baskets
On the other hand, don’t spread your message across too many platforms. It will increase the cost of creative and tracking efforts. It can also lead to a lower share of voice for each platform. Let’s say you’re one of three Italian restaurants in your area. All of them run the same amount of messaging on Yelp! each month. That gives each a 33 1/3% share of voice for Yelp! in your area. When your share of voice decreases, you have a greater risk of having your message drowned out by others. It can be tempting to throw yourself at a gaggle of social media platforms simply because they’re “free.” You might be able to launch and work with a half-dozen social platforms — for a week or two. But when you stop keeping up with regular postings, effectiveness goes down.
6. Too Much Me, Not Enough Thee
Sure, your business is great. You know it, and your loyal customers keep telling you how terrific you are and you want to spread the word. But when your messaging is ALL about you, even when it’s good — that’s bad. Instead, try to focus on the problems your business solves for your customers: How you can provide them with cost savings, more choice, better service or a unique experience they can’t get anywhere else.
We Can Help: Kymera can assist you in solving marketing challenges and driving sales. We have a wide range of options for physical messaging, like direct mail and signage, as well as digital solutions for effective websites and social media management.
We know all the marketing tricks — and working with us is a real treat! Happy Halloween from Kymera!
