Are you the proud owner of an online store, but you aren’t getting as much out of your marketing strategy as you would like?
No matter how hard you try to refine and improve your marketing strategy, there are many reasons why your approach continues to fall flat. For example, you may spend too much time trying to optimize your posts for an image search engine instead of investing your energy into creating truly unique graphics that are more closely associated with your business.
If you’re going to spend money marketing your online store, it’s understandable that you are going to want to see a significant return on your investment. If you’re still struggling to pinpoint why your online store’s marketing plan is failing (or even just not impressing you the way it should), here are four details that deserve your attention:
You Have No Plan
A lot of entrepreneurs like to say they have a plan when what they really have is more of an abstract working concept guiding them in their decision-making process. If you don’t have a plan that’s written down on paper with concrete facts, figures, and data to support the moves you’re making, you don’t really have a marketing plan at all. Fortunately, creating a marketing plan is not nearly as difficult as it sounds. Entrepreneur shares five steps for getting started.
If you are a business owner with a tangible marketing plan and it’s still not working for you, it’s possible that your plan is becoming outdated. As your online store grows and your goals change, you’ll want to revisit your marketing plan with the intention of making changes. What worked for you in the past will not continue to work forever, so commit to keeping a constant eye on your marketing plan to make adjustments along the way.
Spending but Not Tracking Results
You can spend as much money as you want, but it doesn’t guarantee results. There are companies that spend close to nothing on marketing but somehow outperform every company in their industry. While it can be tempting to wish you could just pay someone to make your business successful, it really is good news for business that this is not the case.
According to The Content Factory, the average cost to outsource a social media marketing strategy is somewhere in the $4,000 to $7,000 per month range. It should go without saying that your social media strategy is integral to the success of your business and well worth the investment, but only if you’re actually seeing a return on the investment you’re making. A reputable marketing agent will empower you with data that reflects the growth your business is making on various social media platforms.
It’s okay to spend this money as long as you are getting a positive return on investment, but the only way to know if this is happening is to track your results. Getting in over your head with marketing debts that aren’t increasing the profitability of your business is just one of many credit mistakes business owners make in operating their company.
The Wrong Products
You can have the best marketing plan in the world, but if you don’t offer the right products to the right people, you can’t expect to attract a large number of buyers. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to carry a huge variety in inventory or that you can’t have a niche; you can build an empire selling hockey gear if you want to, you just have to market that product to the right target audience.
Major retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart offer millions of products for consumers to choose from, and chances are good that you’re not going to be able (or want to) compete with those stats. Your goal isn’t to have the right product for everyone, but to know the right person for your product.
Not Focused on Conversion Rate
Your marketing plan tells you how and when to update your social media platforms. It also gives you advice on creating high-quality blog content and touches on the finer details of search engine optimization, such as link building. A marketing plan that is actively tracking these numbers and adjusting based on their analysis is doing a good job, but it could be doing one thing even better.
Too many online store owners are ignoring or undervaluing their conversion rate. They assume driving traffic is more than enough to makes sales, but this isn’t always the case. According to Word Stream, the average landing page conversion rate is 2.35 percent. If your rate is less than that, it’s probably time to take action. This is one data point you don’t want to overlook.
Final Thoughts
You should never assume your marketing plan is generating high-end results. Instead, keep a close eye on data that supports your marketing approach and quantifies results, so you can make changes when necessary. Once you know why your online store’s marketing plan is failing, it’s much easier to make the right changes to drive results.
What marketing mistakes did you make when you started building your business? Share your experiences in the comments.