Image credit: EmirMemedovski | Getty Images Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. With so many platforms, channels, audiences and messages to consider, creating a successful marketing strategy can be overwhelming. Businesses also make these three common mistakes as they try to increase their share of the market and see a strong return on their investment. Giving data short shrift In the rush to develop a marketing strategy and roll it out, many growing businesses fail to allow enough time to do in-depth research -- despite the fact that data underpins everything that follows. For instance, Gauss & Neumann, an SEM consulting firm, sees each keyword used as another opportunity to collect additional data to help find a new audience for any given brand it works with. Analytics can enhance a brand’s personalization efforts, which McKinsey & Company has found can boost revenue by up to 15 percent and cut customer-acquisition costs in half. Growth Business noted that a USP can help articulate and clarify a brand’s mission, which is particularly critical in an era when search engines make it absurdly easy to compare products on the basis of features and price. As brands develop their USP, they need to ask, “Why do people choose us?” One running shoe brand may drive business on the basis of its shoes’ longevity; another brand may capitalize on its customization options. Getting this right is important: ClickZ reported that a single test on a company’s unique value proposition boosted the company’s conversion rate by nearly 34 percent. Bain & Company has concluded that increasing customer retention results in a corresponding boost to revenue.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
With so many platforms, channels, audiences and messages to consider, creating a successful marketing strategy can be overwhelming. In fact, the challenges surrounding marketing-strategy development can become so daunting that companies repeat their mistakes.
Earlier this year, MarTech Today noted that there are more than 5,000 platforms available to help businesses achieve their marketing goal; no wonder only 9 percent of marketers can manage to focus on just one. The upshot is that brands are continuing to spread themselves thin, diluting their efforts in a quest to execute a marketing strategy that will put them in front of their target audience.
But that’s not the only way marketing strategies get ridden off the rails. Businesses also make these three common mistakes as they try to increase their share of the market and see a strong return on their investment.
1. Giving data short shrift
In the rush to develop a marketing strategy and roll it out, many growing businesses fail to allow enough time to do in-depth research — despite the fact that data underpins everything that follows. “The greater and more widespread amounts of data available at companies’ disposal opens new opportunities, and challenges, for marketers to learn about their consumers and produce leads,” Dashmote’s Hannah Park explained in her blog.
That’s why it’s vital that companies not limit themselves when it comes to data. For instance, Gauss & Neumann, an SEM consulting firm, sees each keyword used as another opportunity to collect additional data to help find a new audience for any given brand it works with. The company’s staff of Ph.D.s developed MASK technology, which stands for “massive array of structured keywords,” to grow each client’s search engine marketing accounts to millions rather than thousands of keywords.
Rushing through data collection can cause companies to miss valuable insights or reach incorrect conclusions, particularly when they’re determining individual customer needs. To combat a lack of data, brands should do both primary research, such as conducting customer interviews and surveys, and secondary research, such as studying market reports and articles.
Incorporating analytics…
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