Top 10 Marketing mistakes to avoid

After 10 years of working in this industry, we have had the privilege of interviewing hundreds if not thousands of companies from startups to prestigious established firms. We had the chance to speak many times with entrepreneurs focused on the same product and niche. While one was expanding at the same time the other one was just making the last effort before closing their company and moving on.

The following list is composed of the top 10 mistakes we saw first hand; which matched pretty well with what is presented by most industry reports. We focused on digital marketing and online presence because that is where most of the marketing takes place today.

1. Getting a one-time-fix on your website: Adding Meta tags, a few tweaks to your website and not worrying about content marketing or offsite promotion was effective in 2005. In 2015 you’ll need more than that to remain relevant.
2. Hiring an friend-of-a-friend as an SEO specialist: No referral is valid without a reality check. Google the company, Google their clients, ask for references, call their references and verify that they are real clients of that company. The better the “sales person” they send you, the less they’ll need to worry about quality. Verify everything before signing anything.
3. Looking for price only: You request 10 estimates and by the time you get to #9 you feel the same way as when you’re in the perfume isle at the department store and smelled all the fragrances. You no longer can differentiate Apples from Patchouli. Remember: Nowadays your online presence is one the most important factors that determines the livelihood of your business.  It might be understandable to nickel and dime when buying a car, but not when you need surgery.
4. Hiring your computer / IT guy for Online Marketing: it’s like having a race car driven by the mechanic instead of the pilot.
5. Hiring a web designer for Online Marketing: Imagine replacing a necessary plastic surgery procedure with a visit to the cosmetologist instead. You may look beautiful for a first impression, but no one will be able to find you and see all that beauty.
6. Taking it in-house: Why hire an attorney and pay those expensive attorney hours if you can simply hire a student or a lawyer that is doing badly enough that is willing to work as an employee instead? Similar to Online Marketing, the outcome is not only the money and the time that you’re losing but the damages that can be very hard to recover from.
7. Outsourcing it to a third world country: Yes it’s cheaper. They might even have a virtual US number and their website translated to English. Does it makes sense to hand over the promotion of your company’s message to someone that knows your market less than you? No, but at least it’s fair, you’ll receive exactly what you pay for.
8. Hiring the “National Brand Name” Company: You’re just a number, you’ll receive an impressive Hollywood-Studio-Made presentation, the one-size-fits-all SEO switch will be turned on. Some campaigns will work this way and some won’t. In case you don’t win that raffle, you’ll be able to stop losing money and the opportunity to invest those funds in a customized campaign.
9. Not doing any Digital Marketing: There are still a few companies surviving only by sending postcards, advertising in the Yellow Book, door hangers and in Magazine Ads (Radio Shack, Realtors and many hair salons). Don’t get us wrong, some print media outlets are still big players in terms of branding and advertising directed to their particular niches; but unless you are thinking on hiring Charlize Theron to advertise your latest perfume in Vogue Magazine, you should consider using your marketing budget on something closer to reality.
10. Not doing any marketing at all. You can find any Bankruptcy Lawyers in your area, just search on Google (as we all do for everything) and the first 10 attorneys you find are not only the best (maybe not) but one thing is for certain, they’re doing SEO.