When small business owners start their own business, their main focus, of course, is to attract customers here and now. Sometimes they think that just offering a great product or service is enough. Of course, you won’t go anywhere without a quality product, but you can’t neglect marketing.
Digital marketing allows you to reach a hyper-specific audience and reach people with ads on the sites where they spend time and spend money. This allows you to compete with global brands on a smaller budget, learn more about your potential customers, and keep an eye on your competitors.
Unfortunately, many business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs still perceive digital marketing and social media promotion as something unnecessary and alien.
Today we will talk about the main mistakes of promotion that lead to the fact that companies only buy Instagram likes to increase statistics, and cannot get feedback without outside help.
Focus on followers and likes, not conversions
Of course, thousands and tens of thousands of subscribers can seem like a very attractive target. This is how you look (and actually seem to be) a popular brand. But subscribers do not mean sales yet, the presence of subscribers in your account alone will not add money to your cash desk (the exception is bloggers who make money by placing ads).
It is strategically important to focus on the growth of your profile conversions. In this case, we consider conversions to be targeted actions on the part of the user that can lead to sales: visiting the site, filling out forms with contacts, targeted requests in comments and Direct.
Of course, the number of subscribers and likes is important for the development of the blog. We even recommend that you buy likes on Instagram to increase the statistics of posts in the first stages of work. But you should understand that other active actions of users are also important, except for double tapping on the photo.
Lack of due attention to other entrepreneurs
If you want to stand out as much as possible from other representatives of your field, do not neglect the analysis. You can learn a lot from them and not make the same mistakes they make. What social media are they on? What digital channels are used? How do they sell? It is important!
Study your competitors from the point of view of the sales funnel. Not only analyze their communities, sites and offers, but also what happens after the user clicks on the link through the ad and leaves a request. However, do not blindly copy those techniques that you consider successful.
You only see part of their overall business model. They can work at lower costs or higher margins, target a different segment, and so on. No one approach fits all. You can develop your approach only on the basis of tests and analytics.
Small business doesn’t know its audience
Before starting an advertising campaign, make sure that you have done at least a minimum of research and understand the potential buyer. Demographics, interests, online behavior, needs and purchasing decision path.
Make a portrait of the target audience and clearly define who you are selling to, in what situation people use your product, what problem it solves. Only after that, create content for the community or targeted advertising.
Promotion on all social networks at the same time
Maintaining an Instagram account, a Telegram channel, a Facebook page and a TikTok channel gives the illusion of a larger audience coverage, but in reality it is completely useless. As small business owners, we need to study our customers and understand their environment, instead of wasting our energy posting on all social media.
Choosing the right promotion channel is already half the battle. It will also help optimize content and engage your audience, thus achieving your business goals. By choosing 1-2 channels for promotion, we can effectively manage them. Let’s move on to the last point.
Not measuring or analyze results
Even when many small business owners begin the transition to digital marketing and social media, they unfortunately tend to forget to track how their strategy is being executed.
If you don’t track and measure metrics, you don’t understand what works and what needs to be improved. If you don’t pay attention to metrics: traffic to the site, user behavior on the site, level of engagement in the community, leads, conversions, sales, you drain the budget.
Conclusion
Remember that it is important to focus on increasing conversions and leads. Allocate a budget for paid advertising that will bring you targeted, relevant traffic. Understand your audience and choose the right channels to promote.
Analyze the market in your area, constantly follow the news and events, and don’t forget that you need to improve every day and make your content better. The success of your business depends on how competently and carefully you approach its development.
