Here are some of the most common marketing mistakes small businesses don't think about. They think marketing is advertising, and they can't afford advertising so they forget about it. They don't realize targeting Marketing Dollars is necessary to demonstrate the benefits of their products to customers who will actually buy them.
You have to identify with your customers and determine what will make them say you are a really great company with a fantastic product. You want your customers to tell other people about you and that's advertising you—can afford!
Most small businesses don't do anything unique for their customers, failing to leave that long lasting impression. How do you expect to grow your business if you don't do separate yourself from everyone else in the same business?
One of my mentors (who's President of a company doing a billion dollars in sales annually) always said to me, “You never want to sell a commodity, if you do, you're dead!” Can you imagine a small business that sells a commodity becoming a billion dollar organization, let alone just surviving in economies like the one were now living in?
Small business makes a huge mistake by trying to be everything to everybody, thinking that this opens them up to more customers. I have repeatedly said, “You can't be everything to everybody”, a quote that I'm not sure where I first heard, but is blatantly true. A small business that tries to be everything to everybody usually ends up being nothing to nobody. They go out of business before you even had a chance to know they existed.
Discover who you are, what you want to do, and then be the best at it you can be. If you're not better than your competition, you need to find something else to do. Be the best at something, and then make sure your customers know what something is.