Most small businesses don’t have any money they can afford to waste on marketing. Every dollar spent on marketing has to work for them.
Sadly, many small business owners do in fact waste large portions of their marketing budgets, and it’s not because of a lack of effort…
The issues are caused by habits.
On the positive side, making small changes in operational habits can easily result in significant savings, or – if the marketing budget remains the same – a much better ROI.
Why does marketing money get wasted?
Marketing isn’t simply about spending. It’s about decisions and actions.
Poor habits inevitably lead to poor results.
Many owners of small businesses keep repeating the same mistakes without realizing it.
Eight marketing habits that waste your money.
1. Running marketing campaigns or activities without clear goals:
Are you doing a lot of marketing, but without any real focus?
If your marketing is too broad, the impact of the message is diluted. People who may have responded to targeted ads don’t realize your message is for them, or you are drowned by the competition, and they fail to take action.
To make it worse, the results are difficult to measure. If people respond to your marketing, do they have similar inquiries, or is it just a broad range of inquiries and plenty of “just-curious” people?
Better habit:
Set one clear goal before engaging in any marketing activity or campaign.
2. Trying to market everywhere at the same time:
If you are doing marketing across too many platforms, you end up being spread too thin, and unable to post consistently across all platforms.
It dilutes the progress made from your efforts and your marketing budget.
Better habit:
Pick one or two channels that will actually bring you customers or clients, and put all of your effort into those. Not only will you grow your audience faster, but you will also master the platforms faster, further improving your results.
3. Changing strategies too quickly:
Small business owners often just throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks. However, when you change strategies too quickly, a few things happen:
a. Since the people in your target market usually need several exposures to your brand and offer before they decide, you may very well be walking away from customers who were almost ready to buy.
b. Trust is built on consistency, so for larger purchases many people need even more exposure to your brand/content/message to feel that they can trust you.
c. Whether you are building a following on social media, trying to attract search engine visitors, or running paid ads, it all takes time to grow. Even paid ads, which people often believe to be “instant traffic”, still needs to (i) be viewed multiple times by the same user before they buy, and (ii) needs some tweaking along the way.
Better habit:
Give your strategies more time to produce results, and focus on goals and consistency rather than “trying out” various things.
4. Ignoring your existing customers:
Ignoring your existing customers, and simply focusing on generating new ones, is not always a good move – for two reasons:
a. Acquiring new customers costs more than holding on to existing ones. After all, the most likely person to buy from you is one that has already bought from you.
b. Existing customers, when happy with their purchase and the service they received, tell other people – which is essentially free marketing.
Better habit:
Work on building repeat business, and where possible, reward them for sticking around and referring others. Make them feel special – they will tell their friends.
Yes, you will still need to work on acquiring new buyers, but putting a little of that effort into your existing customers can result in better returns than if that same effort or budget was routed to acquiring new ones.
5. Running paid ads without a plan:
If you run ads without clear messaging or without proper targeting, don’t expect fireworks. When you run vague ads to an untargeted audience, it results in confusion and indifference. Neither are profitable.
Better habit:
Plan your message, your target audience, and the campaign goal before spending any money.
6. Not tracking your results:
If you don’t know what people are responding to, where they respond from (for instance an Instagram post, Youtube video, paid ad on Facebook…)…
You have no idea where your results are coming from. And if one of your sources is radically outperforming the other one or two, that robs you of the opportunity to drastically improve your ROI (by doubling down on the best one).
Or, to put it differently, you keep paying for things that don’t work.
Better habit:
Track whatever you can – including not only the number of inquiries, calls and sales, but also how people found you. Reduce spending on what doesn’t work well, discard what doesn’t work, and focus your spending on what works best.
7. Blindly copying competitors without understanding their strategy:
If you blindly mimic the promotions or marketing tactics of your competitors, your results could send up be much worse than anticipated, for any of several reasons:
a. People have “already seen it”, so the campaign doesn’t come across as something new any more.
b. They may have a larger audience on social media, or a bigger marketing budget.
c. Their brand may be a lot older – and much more established (and therefore more trusted) – than yours.
Better habit:
Focus on your own target market, your own goals, and finding the market segments NOT targeted by your competitors. Don’t try to compete head-to-head, but try to occupy the “space” they are ignoring or overlooking.
8. Treating marketing as if it is an emergency response:
Some people only start marketing when business is slow. However, if you only market during hard times, you will lack the social media audience you could have grown during good times, and – more importantly – you will lack the data to know what they respond well to.
Rushed spending without enough data to back it up can end up wasting your money.
Better habit:
Market consistently. Become the go-to-solution for your target audience. Instead of your marketing being reactive, use it to be pro-active.
Signs that your marketing habits are wasting your money:
a. You don’t know which marketing campaigns, activities or ads work.
b. You have put in a lot of money and/or effort for some time, yet you see very little growth.
c. You frequently change tactics or strategies, because it feels like nothing is working as it should.
d. Doing marketing feels stressful, or downright confusing.
Your simple money-saving marketing checklist:
a. Clearly defined goal/s.
b. Clearly identified target audience.
c. Limited channels/platforms, and focused effort.
d. Results tracked properly.
e. Enough time allowed for current strategies to produce results.
f. Existing customers/clients are nurtured.
In conclusion, the key takeaways:
a. Money wasted during marketing is usually fixable.
b. Better habits lead to better results – not just for marketing, but everything you do in life.
c. Keep working on being consistent, making small improvements along the way as you are able to.