5 Mistakes You Do That Are Killing Your Marketing Efforts

You’re here because your marketing strategy is not working.

Every company depends on marketing to support growth. An effective marketing strategy can turn prospective leads into paying customers. Your business can be in tough shape if you don’t have a predictive marketing sales model.

If you find yourself in this predicament, here are the five reasons why your marketing is not working.

1. You’re not leveraging social media

Having an Instagram account for your business is not enough. Which social channels does your audience use the most? For example, young adults spend more time on TikTok than on Facebook and Instagram combined.

Depending on your target audience, you may also need to have a significant social media presence on LinkedIn, Twitter, Threads and other platforms. If you’re deciding which social media platforms to employ, consider your audience. In addition to raising brand recognition among current consumers, a good social media presence may also spark interest among new potential customers.

I typically recommend utilizing 2-3 social media platforms. Your social media content strategy should reflect your company’s values, showcase customer testimonials, and promote products and services as needed.

The key to content marketing is authenticity to the brand. For example, my company plants trees for every client we work with. It would be disingenuous for us to hop on trendy social causes just to show that we want to “do good.”

Related: Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Marketing

2. You’re ignoring email marketing

86% of consumers would like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with at least monthly (with 15% preferring daily emails). The easiest approach to promote a sale, communicate upcoming events, or remarket to past clients is via email.

An average consumer receives 100 emails per day, so you must stand out!

Here’s a guide we use for all of our clients:

• Your design should be minimalistic, short & informative, and responsive (optimized for all screen sizes).
• Use personalization as much as possible. This means first name, date of purchase, birthday, etc.
• Subject lines contribute to 60% of open rates. You are competing against 99 other subject lines. A rule of thumb is that you don’t want to be selling in the subject line. Your number 1 goal is to get an open.
• Have a compelling offer! Your offer must be a no-brainer for an event or a product launch.

3. You don’t know your audience

Your marketing communications must be directed to the appropriate audience members if you want your digital advertising strategy to be successful. Most marketers will tell you that it’s very important to know who they are, how they live, what they like and what values are important to them. If you want to connect with your target audience and increase client happiness, you must have this information. Analytical methods can be used to identify the characteristics of your ideal customer.

I’ll tell you what most marketers won’t: find what trigger events cause your customers to buy your product/service, and you’ll know everything you need to know.

You can do this by setting up post-purchase surveys.

Related: 6 Must-Do’s for Effective Social Media Marketing

4. You’re too salesy

In my ten years in marketing, I can unequivocally confirm that vulnerability drives the most engagement. Everyone dislikes being sold to.

The most common mistake salespeople make is constantly trying to sell and upsell without showing who they are.

My favorite approach is what I call the commitment scale. You would never ask a potential partner to marry you on the first date because the probability of a positive outcome is zero to none. With time, more dates and gradual growth in the relationship, the likelihood of them saying yes to your marriage proposal goes up significantly. The same approach should be applied to marketing: show your values, the causes you care about, what inspires you and why you love what you do.

Build an authentic relationship with your audience, and you will have more sales than you know what to do with.

Related: How to Close Deals Without Coming Off as Salesy

5. You’re expecting immediate results

We have a simple motto at Yellow Tree Marketing: marketing is like growing a tree — the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today.

It takes time. Consistency is everything. You must have consistent and frequent encounters with your prospective and past customers to have traction.

We work a lot in political consulting, and one of the fundamental tenets is that it usually takes more than six interactions with a voter to persuade them to cast a ballot. Because of this, voters are inundated with messages during the political campaign season through several various platforms. Your marketing relies on the same idea. Your target market must be repeatedly reached. You must accomplish this using a variety of channels, including your website, social media sites, email, direct mail, radio, etc.

It typically takes 6-8 touch points to produce a sale. Don’t give up. Staying consistent and results will show.

If your marketing is not working, it is important to take action to address the problem. By leveraging social media, optimizing email marketing, getting to know your audience, showing vulnerability and staying patient, you can build an effective marketing strategy that consistently generates sales.