7 reasons your marketing isn't working

You're giving up too soon

The biggest secret to marketing success is consistency. Every successful brand, business, entrepreneur, or celebrity is there because they persisted.

So many businesses try an avenue of marketing activity but give up if they don’t see immediate results. Email marketing is a great example. A company might send a handful of newsletter-style emails but not see any leads, so they stop sending them.

For starters, newsletters are not about generating leads; they’re about keeping your existing client base engaged and informed. Secondly, you must build up regularity with your audience and build trust. Once you’ve done this, people will almost expect your email.
 

Your content isn't engaging

This isn’t just a polite way of saying your content is dull. Your content might be great, but if the link you’re sharing and the intro text on social media doesn’t have any context or a hook to pull people in, then you’re not going to get the engagement.

You must also be prepared that people are human – they will always engage more with a photo of the office dog than with a blog you’ve spent hours poring over.

We’d be willing to wager that sharing this blog on social media won’t get anywhere near as many reactions or comments as this recent post shared with a photo of a Livewire team meeting and fried breakfast.
 

You're using the wrong channels

This boils down to knowing your audience. Who is your ideal client, what are their likes and dislikes, what do they know about, what language and tone of voice do they use, and where do they hang out?

Once you’ve nailed this description, you can start to consider if you’re using the correct channels to raise awareness of your product or service. As a prime example, there is little point in using Pinterest or Instagram if your offering isn’t visually engaging or targeted to a consumer audience. The same applies if your target audience is a typically older demographic and you’re trying to embrace TikTok. However, a caveat is that you can use TikTok as a video editing tool to create and share content elsewhere, where your audience will hang out.
 

You're inconsistent

Maybe you’re writing blogs and news pieces; perhaps you share these on social media along with an occasional behind-the-scenes post. That’s a great start, but inconsistency is another killer to your marketing strategy. Post regularly, share regularly and engage regularly.

By regularly, we mean to post a few times a week. If daily feels too much for you, three-five times per week is ideal. Engage with people regularly too – let them know you’re about and active. Not only does this help put you and your business on the radar, so you’re front of mind when your prospective customer is ready to purchase, but posting regularly helps kick the social media algorithms into action.

You don't have a content plan

Your content plan should form part of your marketing strategy. If you’re part of a small or micro business that doesn’t have a dedicated marketing resource, we would still urge you to set aside some time to plan your marketing approach.

Not having a content plan means you’ll be committing mistake number four (being inconsistent). Plus, you’ll be scrabbling around for a topic and grabbing the first thing that comes to mind without considering how relevant or engaging it is for your audience (hello, mistake number two). In short, spend some time developing content ideas to last you at least for the next quarter if not beyond.
 

Your colleagues aren't on board

Think about the number of followers your company's social media channels have. Now think about your colleagues’ collective networks. The total of these will far-outweigh your company accounts.

If you’ve created marketing content, whether it’s a news piece, a product spotlight, a special offer or details of an upcoming event, ask your colleagues to engage with it. A like, a share or a comment are all useful. Even better, ask your colleagues for content ideas. What are they up to, who are they meeting, and what questions are they asked regularly? These are helpful content ideas (helping avoid mistake number five!)
 

You're not reading the room

What’s going on in the world? Ok, that’s a big question, but as a marketer or the person in charge of your company’s public persona, you need to know what’s in the ether. What’s the sentiment in your industry or in general? There might be nothing of note happening, but if you know something that might impact your marketing, take it into account. For example, address if costs are escalating or you know there are specific products that people are struggling to come by. If there has been a major news event, don’t share upbeat social posts. This can be risky if you use a social media scheduling tool, so keep that in mind.

Which of the above might you be guilty of? Are any of these mistakes impacting your marketing? If you could do with some support with your marketing or content strategy, then contact the Livewire team.