Small businesses have a little margin for error (so to speak), they have to get everything right the first time. Any little mistake, and you are out of business, which is why you need to equip yourself with the right knowledge so as to get it right the first time.

Such mistake can cost both time and the little resources available. When it comes to marketing, there is different ways to reach your desired audience, you just have to know where they are and how to reach them.

However, while trying to reach your audience, there are some mistakes you need to avoid that will help you save time and resources. It is possible that you are not making this mistakes yet, that is good. To avoid suffering from them later, it is ideal that you consider the point highlighted below.

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So below are 8 mistakes to avoid in your digital marketing journey for your small business before it is too late.

1. You don’t have a Website

Many small businesses do not have a website. In fact, SCORE says that “Just 51% of small businesses have websites”. Some business owners think that owning a website is not important especially if they are a local business.

Little do they know that a lot of customers search online for products and services before contacting businesses. This means that before clients visit your business, they might have search online to get little information about you.

One thing that discourages small business from getting a website is the notion that it will be expensive. To deal with this, dozens of companies have stepped forward to make website creation easier and more affordable. Companies like Wix, GoDaddy, Weebly, Squarespace and many, many more can help.

2.You have no Marketing Plan

The same way you create a business plan when starting out, you also need to get a marketing plan.

For a small business, time and budgets are short, so there’s an urge to skip as many “unnecessary” steps for marketing as possible.

So, planning out your marketing strategy, the specific tactics you’ll use, how much they’ll cost and how much time they’ll take dramatically increases your chances for success.

You can plan and write out a good marketing plan in an afternoon.  In that time, those 3-5 hours could be worth doubling the effectiveness of your marketing budget.

3.Being Scared of Social Media

A lot of persons spend long hours on social media, which makes it a great place to meet your prospective clients. So if your business is not on social media, you are making a huge mistake.

Social media provides one of the most affordable and effective marketing techniques for small business owners who can focus their efforts and maximize their time spent on social media to yield big results.

The trick to using social media to promote your small business is two-fold. First, you need to select the right network, and second, you need to be clear about what your goals are.

4.Trying to Sell to Everyone

As a small business, you will like to reach as much persons a possible to as to increase your chances of landing a large customers base. However, it will be a big mistake to you to consider everyone as your client.

While it may be true that you sell a product or service that appeals to a broad audience when it comes to marketing you need to narrow down your target to a recognizable group so you can use messaging and marketing approaches that reach them directly.

5.Underestimating the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing

When you finally get your product or service to the public, word of mouth marketing should be your first point of call. This method of necessary because it is free and it happens naturally.

If you are able to reach the heart of your customers with your product or service, their is a high chance that they might market your business to there family and friends. This in turn will increase your customer base. And not only does it bring in new customers, but it can also result in ongoing repeat business.

6. You avoid Tracking Results

As your business begin to grow, you might find your result overwhelming and avoid tracking them. But it is important to track your result as it will help you know what strategy works or does not work.

Whether it’s not tracking goals on your website with Google Analytics, or not tracking conversions through your pay per click ads, or not tracking calls and foot traffic from a big sale or advertising investment, if you aren’t tracking, you’re throwing your money away.

Tracking your results, also help you learn from your mistakes. Worst of all, if you don’t track, then there’s really no way to improve. That is truly a waste of a marketing budget.

For example, System ID, a small business in Texas, realized that a large number of the customers who converted after clicking an ad, came in on keywords directly related to a subset of their products.

Be redirecting a portion of their budget to acquire these customers, they were able to reduce their cost per click by almost over 20% in less than 3 months, while getting in touch with more of their highest value leads.

7. Trying to reach the wrong audience

Even though you want to reach a lot of people and get your product and service in front of them, market to the wrong audience will do you no good. It is just a waste of time, efforts and resources.

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Some business owners have such a clear, focused view of who they want their customers or clients to be that they can be completely blinded to the customers they actually have. So research and focus more on the clients that are more likely to patronize your business.

8.You blew your budget on just one thing

At the early stage of your business, you have little resources to work with, it will be very bad for you to spend it on a strategy you have tried before.

This mistake happens an awful lot, especially when owners have their launch budget. They’ve got this nice lump of money, and they think if they invest it in this one big thing, it will help to get them to break even faster.

So before choosing the right marketing plan to fly with, try to research as many strategies as possible to be sure of the right one for your business.