Marketing As if You Were Bigger

Marketing as if you were bigger begins with an understanding of what the big brands do and, maybe more importantly, what they don’t do. Here are some marketing pitfalls that a big brand would never get trapped in (but that small businesses often do stumble into unknowingly):

• Publishing a website before it is a completely finished (meaning that there aren’t any broken links or unfinished pages, and that there are compelling calls to action and an obvious value proposition).
• Hiring a graphic designer to create marketing materials and letting them do whatever they think is best (you should be critically analyzing the final designs to ensure they align with your brand standards).
• Posting distorted or incorrectly cropped photos on social media due to a lack of time (it is common to face the challenge of not having enough hours in the day but details like this one matter).
• Forgetting to reply to customer reviews (whether they are good or bad, it took effort for a customer to write you a review and replying shows that you value their time and opinion).
• Establishing business hours, but foregoing them when other things come up (making your own hours is often one of the things entrepreneurs love most about being their own boss. However, it can really hurt your reputation to say you’ll be open and then decide not to be).
• Having incorrect or inconsistent contact information posted in various places online (if you change your address or phone number, it is crucial to update every online listing you have).
• Buying a cheap logo online or just a clipart image that represents what you sell and using it as a logo (Your logo is the first visual piece of branding you will have so it’s important to have one that uniquely represents you created by a professional.).
• Worse than the previous bullet point: going without a logo.

Continue to full article