What Are the Biggest Marketing Mistakes to Avoid Making?

Screwing up on your next marketing campaign is easier to do than you might think. Not dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s, is essentially the same as lighting your hard earned money on fire. That’s why you need to know what the biggest marketing mistakes to avoid are ahead of time.

Providing businesses across dozens of different verticals with successful campaigns over the course of the past 20 years gives us first hand experience not only about what the biggest marketing mistakes to avoid are, but also how to overcome them. Follow along to get the insights you need to make your next marketing campaign one to remember.

Failing to Combine Your Online and Offline Marketing Strategies

One of the most common marketing mistakes to avoid is keeping your offline and online marketing efforts separate. Combining them creates an omnichannel presence for your brand, allowing you to properly engage all the members of your audience. Spending too much of your energy on one particular medium means neglecting members of your audience who may not use that particular channel. There are dozens of different ways you can combine your offline and online marketing strategies, too.

For instance, let’s say that you prefer to spend the majority of your advertising budget on paid social media campaigns. If you have members of your audience who happen to be taking a social media break, they’ll miss out on the great product, offer or update you’re sharing. But spending a portion of your budget on social media, while spending another portion on a postcard marketing campaign allows you to reach those members of your audience who may not receive your social media ads. When it comes to combining direct mail with digital marketing, the possibilities are truly endless.

Not Incorporating User Generated Content (UGC) Into Your Marketing Collateral

Another major marketing mistake to avoid is failing to let potential customers hear from past customers. Even if your written copy is Hemmingway-level good, it just won’t resonate with your audience the way user-generated content will.

UGC is content that originates from people actually using your product.

Some examples include:

• Certificates and Awards:

If you’ve worked so hard satisfying customers that you’ve earned awards for it, show them off! You’re doing yourself a major disservice by failing to display them on marketing collateral like postcards, brochures, flyers and more. That could be exactly what sets you apart from the competition.

• High Star Ratings:

If you haven’t started collecting reviews from a source like Google or Yelp, the best time to start is right now. Because once you get that first stellar, five-star review you can begin sharing it with other potential customers. And doing so could be exactly what it takes to get them to believe in your brand enough to finally buy.

• Reviews and Testimonials:

The power of a great testimonial can never be underestimated. Part of the reason why is because online reviews are read by 95% of people before buying. But if you simply leave them to search for reviews on their own they might wind up buying from a competitor by the time they’re done browsing. By including reviews or testimonials on your offline marketing materials, you can share your stellar reviews without fear of losing them to the competition.

Failing to Track the Results of Your Campaign

Another one of the most common marketing mistakes to avoid is not making tracking a priority of your campaigns. After all, you can’t truly determine whether or not your campaign was a success unless you track it right?

So here are a few ways that GrowMail allows you to track marketing campaigns:

• QR Codes:

There are numerous benefits to adding QR codes onto your marketing collateral. Let’s say for example you make them a part of your next postcard marketing campaign.  Not only will they make it easier for recipients to navigate to your website but at the end of your campaign you’ll be able to easily see how many recipients scanned it.

• Landing Pages:

Perhaps you have a special offer you’d like to extend to a particular audience in hopes of re-engaging them. With a specialized landing page, you can create a custom URL that catches the attention of recipients in a way your ordinary URL won’t. You can even design your landing page around the special offer, making recipients feel as though you’ve truly gone above and beyond to roll out the red carpet to win them back.

• Tracking Phone Number:

Tracking phone numbers are as simple to use as you might imagine. Instead of simply adding your regular phone number onto your materials, having a specialty phone number created allows you to speak to recipients while tracking who called as a result of your campaign.

Neglecting Current Customers in Favor of New Ones

One of the challenges that marketers face is determining what to prioritize. Often, finding new customers will take precedence over nurturing current customers, and winning back lost ones. But that’s one of the most costly marketing mistakes you could make. That’s because keeping current customers is more affordable than acquiring new ones.

If you aren’t sure how much you’re spending on customer acquisition costs (CAC), the formula is below.

• CAC Formula:

Cost of Sales+Marketing/Number of New Customers Acquired

Ideally, your customer acquisition costs should be roughly three times lower than your customer lifetime value.

If you’re unsure of how to calculate your customer lifetime value, or CLV just use this formula:

• CLV Formula:

Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan.

And last but not least, if you don’t know how to calculate customer value, here’s the formula:

• Customer Value Formula:

Average Purchase Value x Average Number of Purchases

Neglecting these statistics is among the most common, yet expensive marketing mistakes to avoid making. If you’re unfamiliar with these statistics, work with a team with a successful track record that spans across 2 decades to bring your next marketing campaign to life. You’ll be more than glad you did.

Avoid the Most Common Marketing Mistakes by Working with GrowMail on Your Next Campaign!

Even the most seasoned marketers still fall victim to some of the most common marketing mistakes to avoid from time to time. That’s why so many brands across a variety of industries rely on GrowMail. After 20 years, our team has seen it all giving us the insight necessary to help you exceed your marketing goals. Want to eliminate the odds of making the most common marketing mistakes to avoid in your next campaign? Book an appointment with the marketing specialists at GrowMail today!