Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Not all companies are meant to last forever, and that doesn't necessarily mean they've failed. Failure only occurs when the exit does not result in a favorable return for the stakeholders. As shown by this metric, between 75% and 90% of all startups fail, compared to about 70% for non-startup small businesses.
One of the most common reasons for boot failure it's ineffective marketing. Your marketing strategy is just as essential to your startup's success as securing seed funding. When developing, avoid these mistakes.
1. Insufficient market research
Every entrepreneur has eureka moments when that great idea sparks into life. But no matter how great an idea you have, you can't build a startup based on an idea alone.
You should resist the temptation to spend countless hours on product development before reflecting on other aspects of your startup. Instead, behave in-depth market research first and then use the insights gleaned from your research to shape the product development process. You'll end up with a product that really appeals to your target audience and you'll be well on your way to launching more effective marketing campaigns.
Connected: The 5 Most Harmful Marketing Mistakes New Entrepreneurs Make
2. Not knowing your customer
As you conduct market research, you will get to know yourself target demographic. You will determine common age/gender/salary breakdowns and this information will be useful. However, beyond the usual metrics, you'll need to focus on knowing your customers' pain points. What are they stressing about? What keeps them up at night? What's stopping them from clicking “Add to Cart?”
Knowing your customers' pain points can allow you to create more compelling marketing materials communicate value. You will need to convince customers that your product or service can make their lives better, easier or more enjoyable.
3. Not knowing yourself
“Know thyself” is more than a Socratic maxim repeated by self-help gurus. It is also a fundamental marketing concept. As you get to know your customers, you'll need to get to know your brand better.
You can only create effective marketing strategies and campaigns if you have a strong understanding of yourself brand identity AND brand voice. All your marketing materials will need to align with your brand identity in order to produce consistent messages, build trust and communicate authenticity.
4. Trying to be everywhere at the same time
Smart entrepreneurs understand the critical importance of marketing to initial success, and unfortunately, this knowledge can lead them to make another marketing mistake. You can imagine your brand presence on every social media channel and your website ranking high for every related search term.
However, when you're just starting out, it's best to avoid trying to be everywhere at once. Instead, focus on quality over quantity. Identify just a few of the most influential platforms and target them first. Focus on just a few most important search terms, just one or two key influencers and so on. Similarly, resist the temptation to scale your campaigns too quickly.
Connected: Avoid the “Too Fast, Too Furious” approach to scaling a startup
5. Rush up the ladder too fast
You already know that you will have to spend money to make money, and a significant part of your funds will have to be distributed marketing budget. However, remember that it won't do you any good to use up your entire annual marketing budget in just one quarter. In other words, don't rush to scale your marketing campaigns too quickly.
A focus on quality over quantity will get you started”bite-sized” Marketing Campaigns. Monitor results carefully — and learn from them — and make adjustments as needed. When your results are meeting your goals and you feel your strategies are on solid ground, then you can launch a large-scale campaign without wasted unnecessary advertising spend.
6. Tracking results randomly
Of course, before you can track the results of your marketing campaigns, you need to know exactly how to do it correctly. If you only track results randomly, you'll get an incomplete picture of the effectiveness of your campaigns and end up with wasted ad spend.
Unfortunately, common tracking methods leaves something to be desired. You might think, for example, that Google tracking is powerful enough, however it doesn't monitor every stage of the customer journey. It can attribute a sale to one of its PPC ads, completely ignoring the role an Instagram post played in driving the purchase.
Instead, you'll want to track every touchpoint in the customer journey. Conventional tracking methods don't, which is why my company, Ai Media Group, uses Atrilyx™ – our proprietary technology that tracks and attributes every touchpoint to optimize conversion paths and increase ROI.
7. Failure to communicate across departments
Evolution is inevitable, and in the startup landscape, it must happen quickly. Not only will your marketing team need to quickly identify the need for adjustments based on tracking data (and execute those adjustments), but they will also need to make adjustments based on cross-departmental communication.
Very often, different departments in a startup operate in their own bubble. Without open communication across departments, the marketing team may not get all the information it needs to evolve. For example, the customer service team will have a sense of the common reasons for customer dissatisfaction, but if that information is not shared with the marketing and product development teams, those issues will not be resolved.
Similarly, thanks to multi-touch-point attribution, the marketing team can become aware of a product development problem that causes potential customers to drop off the radar. If there is a communication breakdown, this potentially fatal flaw may not be addressed. In other words, you can use attribution for more than just sharpening the focus of your marketing campaigns; it can also drive product improvements and innovations – but only if your startup fosters open communication.
All brands evolve. It is essential to embrace change and chaos and learn from absolutely everything. If you have a cohesive marketing strategy that includes robust results tracking, you'll find that you can pivot faster and more effectively, which will drive your startup's success.