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4 Marketing Pitfalls to Avoid
Recently I’ve had several friends reach out to me with questions around the best timing to invest in SEO.
Is it the right time? Who should I work with? How do I know I’m not getting ripped off? The list goes on...
Here’s the thing.
When you are going to make investments in your business, it starts with why you are making the investment.
For each of the 4 marketing pitfalls, we will walk through a checklist of sorts. You will walk away with a clear idea of where you are. What you need to do before you are ready to invest.
Let’s dive right in and save you time and money.
And if you are ready, you will sleep better at night knowing you’ve made a solid investment.
#1 Investing In SEO Too Early
SEO is becoming more mainstream and popular.
But here’s the problem. Most people, business owners included, have no idea what it means.
They don’t know how to know if someone knows what they are doing in SEO. They don’t know what they need to be ready to invest in SEO. They don’t have proper expectations.
When my clients ask me, “Holly, am I ready to invest in SEO?”I ask them several questions.
- What are you hoping SEO will do for you? What are your goals behind the investment?
- Do you have a strong website with lots of content (i.e. monthly blog articles, services, contact forms, etc.)?
- What services are you hoping to get leads for (i.e. what are your core services)?
- Are you providing services face to face or online?
- Have you researched your competitors?
- How soon are you looking for a return on your investment?
- If successful, what’s your plan to scale your services or products?
If you can’t answer these questions, I would start by doing that.
SEO is great to invest in if you are:
- Clear on what core services or products you want to be seen for online
- You want to see a return on your investment in 6-12 months
- You have a lot of content and a clear message for your brand
- You want to compete in specific city(ies)
- You have a plan to scale up as needed
- You want more leads based on online search for your area
The mistake too many business owners make is investing too early.
Before they have a brand message. Before they know what services they want to provide. Before they have a plan to scale if they are successful.
Before you invest, be ready. Have a plan.
#2 Spending on Ads Without a Sales Page
If you are looking for a faster return on your investment, ads might be the way to go.
But there are some things you need to have ready if you want the biggest bang for your buck.
Here’s your ad spend checklist:
- Do you have a solid sales page?
- Does your sales page convert?
- Are you selling online? Or will you schedule calls to sell them?
- Do you know your customer’s pain points?
- Have you tested your service or product?
- Are customers willing to pay what you are charging?
- Have you researched your competitors? How are you different?
- Do you have a big enough budget?
The biggest mistake I see business owners make is investing in ads. Before they have built and tested a sales page.
Without a solid sales page, there’s no point in investing in ads. Even if your sales strategy is to get people onto a sales call, your sales page needs to be compelling and solid.
You need testimonials. You need social proof. You need to understand your customer’s pain points. You need to show them how you will solve that problem for them.
The other big challenge around ads is that it costs a lot. Typical ad campaigns start at $100 a day with 25-30% management fees. That’s a lot for most small business owners.
This is why I tell my clients to make sure they have an amazing sales page. To make sure they have solid price points. To ensure they have done market research. That they have tested their service/product. To save up on ad budget. And to do their research on who manages their ads.
When you’re hiring someone to manage your ad spend, make sure they know what they are doing. If they aren’t asking you a lot of questions like I have outlined above, run for the hills. Keep looking.
#3 Do Either of the Above Without Sales Coaching
Do NOT invest in SEO or Ads until you are excellent at the sales conversation. Unless you are selling online only.
Services and products that are above $100 typically require a sales call. Solutions priced at $1,000 or more absolutely require a sales call.
This means you need to be great at closing sales. If you work really hard on ad spend and SEO to get leads for sales calls, you need to ensure you are closing as many of those as possible.
The BIGGEST mistake I see business owners make is NOT investing in sales coaching.
Most people don’t even know what their closing rate is. Know your numbers. Practice every day. Have a sales call every single day.
When you are great at handling objections like a pro. When you are closing the deal on the first call.
Then consider investing in ad spend.
#4 Building Services End to End without a Beta Test
"Build it and they will come." Field of Dreams movie.
Don’t make this mistake.
I have seen so many business owners do this. They don’t think they can sell something they haven’t built end to end.
They build out an elaborate service or solution. They overinvest in building out a sales page. They do all these things without beta testing. Without iterating.
I would prefer that you build it as you go.
In fact most of the successful business owners in the world sell it first and then build it.
If you’re building a membership subscription, send an email to your list selling it at a grandfathered discounted rate. Have them help you build it.
Have your ideal clients tell you what they want. Have them fund the venture first.
And guess what, if NO ONE signs up. You know your idea is a DUD. Great. You didn’t waste time or money. Think and go for the next great idea.
Do not waste your time.
Test your ideas first. Then build the plane as you fly it.
I Want to Hear From You
What was your biggest mistake in marketing for your business?
What did you learn from it?
Please share.
When we share our lessons, it helps our fellow business owners avoid similar pitfalls.
Need Help?
If you are struggling to answer these questions, I can help. Together, we can build the best roadmap for you to build, scale and grow your business.
Schedule a coaching call so we can get you unstuck and build out a plan to help you move forward.
