The amount of conflicting information floating around out there can make it difficult to decide in which direction to take your business’s marketing strategy. Marketing, as you can imagine, is not a one-size-fits-all matter, and what works for one type of business won’t work for another. In fact, what works for a company in, say, Chicago, might not work for the same company in San Antonio.
There are, however, a few “marketing don’ts” that span all industries – make sure that you steer clear of these errors.
Having Social Media But No Business Website
Social media is an extremely important part of marketing. You should not assume, though, that having a strong social media following is enough of a “presence” to be considered the majority of your marketing strategy. In today’s business world, being on social media is absolutely necessary, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to have a professional business website.
People need to have a place to go when they want to see your business as a whole – what exactly do you offer? How can it be purchased? What kind of customer service and/or return policies do you have? Social media is done in snippets – pictures on Instagram, statuses on Facebook, 140 characters in a Tweet. Using too many snippets too often to describe your whole business will overwhelm your social media followers.
Failing to Have a Unique Selling Position 
You may have a good product, or a great product, or a revolutionary product, but it won’t matter if you don’t know how to sell it – especially if your competitors have similar products. (Think iPhones versus Androids.) This has possibly the biggest impact on your marketing: how are you making your product stand out above the others?
There are several ways to do this. For example, Quizno’s Subs had commercials in which unidentifiable creatures came on the TV screen and sang – badly – about Quizno’s subs. People didn’t like that commercial, but it was effective because it got people talking about Quizno’s Subs. You can go with funny, like the Old Spice commercials, or with mysterious, like Dos Equis beer and the most interesting man in the world.
Whichever strategy you choose, you need to go beyond things like "great customer service" and "quality product" here. Customers expect great customer service and they demand quality products – and all your competitors offer these things too. What makes you different enough to be worthy of a person’s hard earned money?
For more information on marketing strategies, contact Oates & Company today.
