Creative meets Innovative

5 Reasons Why: Your Marketing Fails

6 Jan 2012 | No Comments | posted by Coldfire Promotions | in Blog Post, Miscellaneous

1.     Your website is working against you.

Let’s face it. Everyone knows in this day of age you need a website for your business to thrive (also see: “survive”). The good news is there are many, many tools and avenues for creating a website. Furthermore, domain registration and website hosting is incredibly inexpensive these days. In fact, you can easily spend less than $100 a year for both! Chances are, however, if you designed your own website or used some sort of template builder, your website is doing more to hurt your business than help it.

Think about it: when you have a plumbing issue, who do you call? A plumber, of course. What about car troubles? Call the mechanic! And your taxes? Yea, right! Time to get a hold of your CPA. It’s no different when it comes to website design and development. Don’t risk driving your customers to your competitor just because the first impression they got of you was your website… hire a professional!

More Helpful Tips: 5 Reasons Why You Need a Graphic Designer

2.     You’re nowhere to be found.

• A website with quality Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Google Places
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• YouTube
• Flickr
• LinkedIn
• RSS Feeds
• Yelp
• And the list goes on…

How many of these tools are you utilizing as part of your marketing strategy? 2? 3? That’s not enough. Especially if the only ones you are on consist of negative reviews on Yelp and a Facebook page with 7 fans… Get some help and take control of your brand before the evil internet monsters (your customers) do!

3.     Lack of innovation.

This is where time, creativity and technology play a big role. Creating an innovative marketing strategy isn’t always the easiest thing to do. It takes a lot of time and brainstorming and can be cumbersome for business owners to try and keep up with the latest trends in technology. Social media, mobile marketing, online coupons, a quality (and useful) website and e-mail marketing are just some of the areas in which your marketing is lacking innovation. These are all rather fresh forms of marketing and, unfortunately, many small business owners are stuck in their old ways and are losing out big time to those who actually keep up with the times. Don’t end up like Kodak and get left behind!

4.     You take the easy way out.

For example: shotgun advertising. It never really works. Sure, it might be a simplistic approach to advertising your business and it might seem to be working, but chances are you’re spending a lot more money per conversion than you would be if you actually sat down and developed a strategy. Whether it’s time, money, manpower or a lack of creativity, marketing roadblocks come from every which direction for small businesses. Don’t ever settle for anything but the best. You simply cannot afford to.

5.     Failing to put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

One of the most difficult things for any small business owner is putting yourself in the shoes of your customer. Whether its sales, marketing, PR or nearly any other business function, you have to understand that a) your customers are most important, and b) your customer is always right. All too often I see business owners so close to their work that it becomes near impossible for them to detach themself from their company and look at it from a third person perspective (or that of the customer). I’m guilty of it, you’re guilty of it… we all do it. Fortunately there are hundreds of thousands of marketing professionals readily available to help you out. We just prefer that you hire us!

More Fails?

Are there areas of your marketing that need help? Did we miss something? Share your comments below and subscribe to our e-mail newsletter for more help!

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