The Top 3 Marketing Mistakes Small Business Owners Make

Mistake Number 1: Not Knowing You're In The Marketing Business

This might be the mistake that sinks more businesses than anything else.

It's not enough to have the world's greatest product or service. If you're not great at getting the word out about your incredible product or service, you will have the most incredible solution that not enough people buy because they don't know about it.

Not making enough sales is how you slowly go out of business.

Marketing isn't an optional skill, it's a critical, core business function that has to be executed successfully every single day.

Any business succeeds or fails based on its ability to consistently attract sufficient customers to be profitable. Most people who start businesses don't know this and have no clue about how to execute a successful marketing campaign.

Mistake Number 2: Not Identifying Your Ideal Client

Ask a new small business owner who their ideal client is and often you'll hear some variation of "anybody with money!"

Wrong answer.

Marketing to anybody means you're marketing to nobody. Everyone is super busy and inundated with distractions all day every day. The only way to get someone's attention is to craft messaging that speaks to their individual needs.

The only way to do that is to focus your messaging on one particular person for whom you offer the best solution in the world. But that's only part of the equation:

• You also need this person to be able to afford to pay you.
• And you need them to have a desire to buy what you sell.
• And you need them to have the desire to buy it from you.

AND you need them to be the kind of person you actually want to work with because there are lots of jerks with money who you are better off not having as clients.

You want to work with great people who have money and who want to work with you. That person is your ideal client.

You have to learn that person's needs and aspirations in great depth and use that knowledge to craft marketing messages that will get their attention by speaking to their pain points and ambitions.

[RELATED: 5 Keys To Success For Women Business Owners]

Mistake Number 3: Not Doing Email Marketing

One email blast per week is the cheapest, easiest way to stay in front of your target audience.

Email marketing has a 40X ROI compared to social media marketing!

But most small business owners don't do any email marketing at all and it's a huge mistake.

An ongoing video series is how you use video to build a relationship with your target audience that leads them to trust you and ultimately buy from you.

And the best way to deliver those videos is via email.

The same applies to all your marketing efforts.

An effective marketing system is about showing up consistently for your ideal client who is a busy person who doesn't have time to look under rocks to find you. The best way to show up consistently for them and make their life easier is via email.

A weekly email puts you in front of your ideal client 50+ times per year. And it costs you almost nothing.