In recent years competition for business has been getting tougher and tougher, the high streets are looking bare and more people are looking at new ways in which they can meet their customer’s needs. This has brought an influx of new businesses competing online for their audience through digital marketing.
Business Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

With this being said, some are doing it well, and others are not. There are many reasons why businesses fail in the marketing industry including lack of knowledge, not using tools correctly, not having the budget, and also the most important factor, not having a strategy in place that you should follow.
In this article, we will go through the top business marketing mistakes to avoid in 2022.
Not Having A Clear Marketing Goal
One thing you can’t do with digital marketing is hope for the best, no, this will simply cost you more money than you need to and you will not be meeting your target audience. When your start marketing your business, you need to have clear measurable goals to work toward.
This means having a sit-down and thinking about what you want to achieve in the next six months, 1 year, and even 2 years. This is a good baseline to start thinking about what and how you are going to achieve this.
Many businesses don’t define their goals enough which confuses them, it also makes it much more difficult to track your progress. Those businesses that have a clear set of goals will be much more likely to get positive results than those that have just hoped for the best.
One method in getting clearly defined goals is to think about SMART goals, these should be aligned with your business goals so you can achieve them efficiently.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Aspirational
R – Realistic
T – Time-bound
Example of SMART Goal: By the 30th of April 2022, we will increase our sales by 7%. This goal is specific, measurable, aspirational (due to April being a little short notice), realistic, and is time-bound.
Example of a “Hope For The Best” Goal: Increase sales
Thinking Everyone Is a Customer
There are many businesses out there that feel their product or service is for everyone, this just isn’t true, this just means they have not done their research and don’t know what they are doing. If you try to sell your product to everyone, you just won’t get the same results as you would if you were putting your efforts into your more qualified audience.
Instead, spend some time analyzing your business, what market are you in, and who is your best audience. Once you have determined this, you can then start working on defining your audience further such as their demographics, who they are, and what they need.
Think of it this way, the more you know someone, the more you can do to help them. This is the same with your target audience. It is important not to guess about your audience instead, use your data if you have any.
If you have been set up for some time, you should already have analytics on your site to track your progress. This will give you a good understanding of who your target audience is and what their needs are.
If you are new or have not set this up, firstly, go and get your analytics set up properly. Then, to define your audience, you can use industry data and tools to help you.
If you are struggling with defining your audience, you could always look for a custom research company to help you, but this will cost you money, and if you are new, you will want to keep costs at a minimum.
Avoiding SEO
Avoiding SEO in recent years may as well be business suicide. How are you going to meet your audience if your site is not well optimized? Over 90% of an online journey starts with a search engine and over 80% of online purchasers use SERPS to help them decide on the site they want to go to and also whether they want to buy from there.
Search is a huge part of a potential customer’s journey, so it can’t be ignored. You may find that there is a lot of competition in your industry, but persist and you will find some areas you can dominate.
Short-tail keywords will be difficult to achieve but most searches are done with four words or more called long-tail keywords. Any business can compete for these as they are a lot less competitive, but also bring in a steady line of traffic to the site.
Focusing on SEO will make you a lot more visible online as well as save you money in the long run, SEO is a marathon and not a sprint. Once you have your reputation with domain authority, you will find it a little easier to compete with the more competitive keywords.
Avoiding Social Media
When was the last time you went on your social media? 10 minutes ago? 5 minutes ago? The point is many people spend a lot of time on social media and this can be used as a tool for your business.
On average, people spend at least 2 hours a day on social media, whether this is Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, or any other social media platform. This is a lot of time that you could be showing yourself to your followers and even through other methods such as paid social.
Social media is a great opportunity for all businesses to take advantage of, big or small. It allows you to engage with your audience, keep them up to date, give them relevant information, create quizzes, and sell their product or service.
The possibilities are endless. Many businesses do not pay attention to their social media channels which you can also take advantage of by making yourself more interactive. Others do go on their social media profiles, but they will post irrelevant information, images, videos and it will get very little engagement.
When you decide to utilize social media, you must first think of a strategy that has an end goal. For this, you should focus on three things:
- Build your brand on social media
- Engage with your audience by posting relevant content
- Respond to your audience’s questions and comments.
Once you have a loyal audience and you start posting adverts for paid social, you will also be able to gather the information that will, in turn, help you to define your audience further.
Once you have done this, you will be able to put more of your budget into that audience, rather than having a broader target audience, making it much more efficient.
Ignoring Your Competitors
Not paying attention to your competitors is a risky and pretty dangerous thing to be doing. Have you ever heard of the saying “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”? Well, this is the same in business, you want to be checking their site to see what they are doing, offering, and most importantly, what are you not doing that they are.
This is just an easy way to determine what you need to do to offer a better service or product. Figure out what their unique selling points (USPs) are and then do yourself, but better.
There are so many businesses out there that are making huge marketing mistakes that can easily be resolved. These mistakes can be catastrophic for a business if you continue to carry on with them.
Learn from your mistakes and you will find that you will be stronger the next time around. If you are continuing to struggle with your digital marketing, there are many online resources out there that you can learn from, other alternatives include going to digital marketing courses or hiring an agency to do this for you.
An agency may not be in your budget, so why not invest in yourself or your employees so they can have a good understanding of what to do.
- Business Marketing Mistakes To Avoid In 2022 - May 29, 2024