Marketing mistakes new brands make
Having a strong marketing strategy in place is important for any brand but especially new brands that need to generate awareness and leads quickly to gain traction in their marketplace.
But, the keyword there was strategy. There have been many brands that come out the gate and try to do everything in marketing at once, just hoping something works instead of crafting an integrated and thoughtful approach to marketing their brand, product, or services.
Not only can trying to do everything hurt the brand’s reputation but it can also blow through the marketing budget faster than you think. Maximize your brand’s marketing spend by investing in the right tools, resources, and marketing tactics that’ll drive the right ROI instead of just praying that something works out.
If you’re launching a new brand or product, get the most out of your marketing efforts by not making these marketing mistakes!
10 common branding and marketing mistakes new companies make
1. Poor branding & website
Before you start marketing your new company you have to have nailed down all of your branding. This includes the identity of the company, the company’s mission, vision, and values, what you do or what you offer, the benefits of your brand, who your clients are, your brand’s colors, fonts, and style. You must be consistent with all of these components.
I worked at a company that changed its product name three times, against all better judgment. Three times! That means we had old marketing collateral, print ads, digital ads, social media posts, all with different names for the same thing. That does not send a good impression nor does it make the job any easier for your sales team.
Your brand’s website must also be consistent in its design, navigation, and SEO. If your website’s content is poor or poorly laid out, no one is going to come back. Make sure your website is user-friendly, has a site structure that makes sense and makes it easy for people to find what they’re looking for, and is optimized for the right keyword terms.
2. No content strategy
Similarly to a poor website would be a poor content strategy. If you just post blogs or content on your website with no goals in mind, don’t expect to meet any. Just doing a marketing tactic to do it isn’t worth your time and it really isn’t worth your customers’ time.
Take the upfront time to develop a content marketing strategy to plan consistent and engaging content that brings qualified traffic to your website. Different tactics your strategy could cover include:
- Blogs
- Videos
- Social media posts
- Automated email campaigns
- Ebooks/guides
- Sponsored content
- Webinars
By mapping these pieces out, you have a roadmap of content to create that will actually build your brand’s authority and awareness and help you convert leads.
In the same vein, another common marketing mistake new brands make is to publish a lot of blogs when they first launch their website, but the blogs aren’t relevant. The brands know blog content can help websites rank better so they create blogs on easily optimized content even though it has nothing to do with anything their business does.
Don’t do this!
Spend the time creating quality, informational content that’s relevant to your brand and your target audience. Do your research to know what keyword terms you should be targeting and how to properly optimize your posts so they’re found by the right searchers.
3. Press releases that aren’t press-friendly
This is one of my pet peeves when it comes to marketing and communications, when a colleague says that we should write a press release! That’s ultimately about nothing or isn’t really press-ready.
Press releases serve a specific function. They’re typically used to announce a new product launch, change in the leadership team, new partnership, and so on. They’re not a magical piece of content that will drive hundreds of new sales. Use them wisely or you might find no one reads or wants your press releases as your brand isn’t using them correctly or uses them for every little thing.
4. No welcome emails
Email marketing is a great tool in a marketer’s toolbox but always make sure you make a good first impression with your emails! Before you put a pop-up on your website asking for people’s email addresses, have a welcome email or welcome series set up in the backend so people will actually get something when they sign up.
During the COVID-19 pandemic everyone was sending out emails and that made most people start to wonder, “when did I ever sign up for their emails?” You don’t want your brand to be the one to surprise people that you have their address.
Don’t ask for email addresses if you don’t have a plan in place for what you’ll do with them. Set up an automated welcome email that sets expectations for how often you’ll be emailing them, what about, and how they can change their preferences if they need to.
Then, actually follow through on the expectations you set! If you tell people they’ll get a monthly newsletter with promotions or discounts, news, and tips and tricks for your product, you better send a monthly email with those pieces.
5. Bad third-party presence
Any marketer has gotten the dreaded email from a third party asking if you want to buy an email list from them or host some content on their website and they’ll be able to double your lead gen! Thanks, but no thanks.
Unless you get lucky and the third party actually has the audience you need, it’s best to pass on these offers. First off, you should never buy an email list as that practice could get you blackmailed from all major email marketing platforms. Second, these lead gen sites need thorough vetting before you sign a contract. Most of these sites will send you lists of people who downloaded your content and then when you follow up, they say they have no idea what you’re talking about or wondering how you got their info.
Do not drive your reputation into the ground by buying lists or partnering with scammy lead gen drivers. Maybe one of those people could have been a good fit as a customer, but now they won’t ever talk to you or open another email from you since they’ll just expect more spam.
6. No social presence or a bad one
Honestly, I’d rather see a brand not be on a certain social network than do it poorly. Don’t feel like you have to have a Facebook Page, Twitter account, Pinterest account, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube channel, Snapchat, or Tik Tok account. You don’t.
Pick and choose what networks you can manage well and where your audience is, even if it’s only two networks. Take a look at your competition and see what social media channels they’re active on and that’ll help you understand where you should be spending your time online.
Using a content calendar can help keep your social media posts timely and relevant, and it helps make sure you always have something to post each day.
You should not be mass publishing the same content to each channel or sharing something on Instagram and automatically pushing it to Twitter and Facebook. It’ll look like you don’t care about those audiences as you haven’t formatted the content for them. Take the time to craft the messaging for each platform and engage your followers with conversation starters or questions.
7. Not monitoring social mentions and brand perception
Like I just mentioned above, you should be engaging in conversations with your followers, even if the conversation has turned negative. Good brands will use social media to monitor the web for conversations about their brand to assist with customer service needs or to manage their brand’s reputation.
Don’t leave a negative review or social media post just hanging out online. Respond to it and ask to move the conversation into direct messages or offline. Every brand has a run in with a negative Nancy at some point and it’s better to address it instead of trying to ignore it.
8. No reviews
When you first launch your product or service, be ready to ask for your customers’ help by having them write reviews. Reviews on your own website and trusted third parties can help boost your site’s authority and trust.
Maybe you offer some customers early access if they write a review after or you could enter reviewers into a contest to win discounts or special prizes. A little incentive can go a long way, just make sure you’re not crossing the line into bribery or paying for fake reviews. Consumers are well-trained to spot fake reviews from a mile away.
9. No advertising
Focusing on drawing in organic traffic to your website is very important, but you can’t skimp on advertising, especially as a new player in the space. Try a mix of Google Ads, remarketing, and social media ads (on networks where your target audience is) to reach new customers and build your brand’s awareness.
Test different ads too. Maybe you try sending them to specific product pages or a sales or promotions page. The world is pay to play these days and online advertising is worth the investment.
10. Not tracking marketing efforts
Finally, you’ll want to make sure you enable website tracking as soon as possible so you can actually measure the success of your marketing efforts. If you’re using tools like HubSpot or Marketo, these programs offer their own internal reporting but you should also be sure to install Google Analytics tracking to track more website activity as well as sync up information from your Google Ads account.
The earlier you start tracking and reporting on your marketing successes, the faster and better you can refine your strategy and approach and invest in tactics that perform well for your brand. Even if you hate looking at spreadsheets and data, this is a step that cannot be skipped if you want long-term marketing success.
Do you have any other tips for avoiding these marketing mistakes for new brands? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter!
