If you’re a small business, every penny counts when it comes you your spending, which is why you need to ensure you’re putting it in the right place.
Below, we’ve highlighted three of the biggest mistakes small business make to ensure you don’t make them anytime soon.
Bad or no marketing
In the world of business, regardless of what you sell or do, there’s one common goal – to be successful and make money. And, to do this, you need a marketing plan, which is something that a lot of businesses tend to overlook, which can be bad for cash flow.
Especially important for smaller businesses as a way to establish themselves and bring in customers, it goes without saying that having no marketing is extremely bad for business. However, just because you’re conducting certain marketing activities, doesn’t mean it’s right.
If there’s no ROI (Return on Investment) then your marketing efforts are pointless. After all, why spend money if you’re not making any?
There are countless ways you can market your business, from TV and print to radio, email, social media, billboards and even trade events and flyers. This is where a marketing plan comes into play, as you’ll need to know which ones will work for your business.
To do this you need to know your customer base and what type of budget to put behind your marketing rather than just jumping head in without a fully thought out plan – as this will only lead to failure and wasted money.
If you don’t really know what you’re doing, you don’t have someone in the business who has the know-how, and you can’t afford one yet, an agency is always a good shout. Bringing a wealth of marketing knowledge for a monthly cost, it’ll be like an extension of your team that knows just what to do with what you have.
And remember, marketing should match the size of the business. So, launching a huge campaign won’t be best suited to a small or newer business, as it could cost you thousands of pounds that you simply don’t have, without good ROI. Instead, start smaller and let it grow with you.
Website
Speaking of growth, this naturally brings us to your website.
As most businesses have a website now, does your business sell a product that could be sold online rather than just in a shop? If so, improving your e-commerce platform is extremely important. During the coronavirus pandemic s e-commerce has proved vital for many businesses. Meanwhile, companies such as Primark, one of the country’s biggest retail brands, saw their takings drop to zero overnight as they didn’t sell online.
Again, this isn’t the only issue. Ensuring your website can fully support a large number of web traffic is key for any growing business. As you grow and more people visit, or if you’re putting more and more into your marketing, this will be pointless if your website can’t handle a huge influx of visitors, resulting in slow load times or web pages crashing.
In turn, this can result in potential customers leaving, never to come back again.
Therefore, something all small businesses should do, even before marketing, is to ensure their website is right. From navigation to how many people can visit; this is the foundation of a successful business in the digital age.
Social media
Since the birth of Facebook, social media has exploded, and, aside from everyone and their nan, most businesses are on some form of social media. However, just as many businesses aren’t on social media, are on the wrong platforms or they’re not utilising them properly.
A powerful tool for marketing, brand awareness, customer service and much more, it doesn’t matter what your business does, chances are, there’s a way to reach your intended audience on one of them.
That’s why it’s important to sit down and look at who your key customer is. Then, take a look at what social platforms are the most popular with the demographic you’re trying to reach. After all, if you’re a business to business company, LinkedIn is going to be much more beneficial to you, while those trying to reach people aged 18 – 24 will most likely need platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.
On top of this, you’ll need to ensure you’re using it right. From organic posts to paid advertising, social media can be a powerful tool, but, used in the wrong way could cause your business to haemorrhage money without seeing a penny return.
If you’re a small business and want to find out more about how you can turn these common mistakes around, get in touch today and find out how we can help you.
