Establishing a startup is not an easy venture as it is accompanied by a range of obstacles and challenges. According to CBInsights, the main reason that startups fail is due to misreading market demand. It has been found that out of all failed startups, 42% failed due to this mistake. To avoid this mistake, entrepreneurs should validate their business idea, which would require audience building. This is a form of digital marketing which is imperative for the success of a business.
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This article will explore the digital marketing mistakes which may serve to harm ecommerce startups.
Neglecting a Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is a vital part when having a startup. Just as a business needs a business plan, it needs a marketing plan. This is a written statement which describes the aims and means that the startup will target customers and ultimately achieve their marketing goals. The marketing tactics and strategies planned to be used has to be covered by the marketing plan, as this will assist businesses in changing their tactics and strategies if need be. This also prevents businesses using a range of different marketing strategies which may seem attractive, as this does rarely prove lucrative.
Using the wrong channels
In today’s day and age, there are a large range of marketing channels which are available to be used. Examples of these are print, TV, radio, social media and blogs. The large range may prove intimidating to startups as they are unsure of which channel, or channels, are the best to use. To successfully choose a channel to use, startups should determine their target audience and their demographics. For example, if a business aims to target millennials, using Instagram as a marketing platform may prove to be successful as 90% of Instagram users are under the age of 35. If businesses aim to reach business professionals, a platform such as LinkedIn may prove to be successful.
Neglecting the marketing of the website
Many businesses believe that the perfect website is a vital key in their business’ success. Having a well designed website is important, but if the website is not marketed correctly, it will have no traffic. Essentially, the perfect website would go to waste. Businesses should not put too much energy into website design, but should rather focus on marketing. Once the website has consistent traffic, businesses would then be able to improve their website and would know what their customers and clients prefer in a website, which would be able to direct them in the design process.
Neglecting audience building
Many entrepreneurs are eager to start their business because they feel that their product or service will be positively accepted by the public. This is not always the case, and this mistake may be avoided if entrepreneurs put effort into validating their business idea before establishing the business. By validating the business idea, entrepreneurs will gain insight into whether there is a market for the product or not. For example, entrepreneurs may start by building an email list. Entrepreneurs could email 500 people informing them of their product or service, and if 20% of those people respond saying they would purchase the product or service, this would be confirmation that the business idea may prove to be successful. Many entrepreneurs are fortunate enough to gain success without doing audience building, but this is risky.
Neglecting content marketing
Without informing and educating potential customers and clients of what the product or service is, businesses will hinder their success. By using the content marketing strategy, businesses will be able to offer potential clients and customers an understanding of the benefits of the product or service, and why they need it in their lives. To create engaging content, businesses should aim to write attention grabbing headlines, they should remember to use many images, videos and infographics in their content, and they should aim to make the content more interesting and relatable by personal stories.
The takeaway
Before launching a startup, entrepreneurs need to form a strong marketing plan. By doing so, they would be able to avoid the mentioned mistakes and would be able to use that saved time to focus on reaching growth in their startup.
