RRecently, my company had the honor of speaking about marketing at the 3rd Annual Coweta County Nonprofit Summit. After the presentation, one of the attendees approached me and asked me a few questions. She was a volunteer board member who attended conferences to get information about nonprofits, but she told me her “real job” was running a small business in Newnan. She was struggling to market her business to attract new customers and wondered what she could do. Rather than immediately answering questions, our conversation naturally evolved into a conversation about marketing mistakes I've seen people (myself included) make over the years. I thought the conversation we had might make a good article.
What is marketing? The simplest definition I have is:
Marketing = promotion.
Marketing typically aims to promote activities that result in an exchange of money, such as the sale of products or services. For nonprofit organizations, marketing may be used to solicit donors and sponsors. I used the word “usually” on purpose because marketing doesn't necessarily involve sales or donations. Marketing may be used to promote free community events, promote public awareness of ideas, and recruit volunteers. Thirty years ago, when I was in graduate school, I learned something. Marketing mix called “5 Ps of marketing” – Products (or services), locations, prices, promotions, and people. Some experts have expanded this to the “7 Ps” to include packaging and positioning. I've heard others mention only the “four Ps.” No matter how many P's you add to the mix, let's keep it to just “promotion” for simplicity's sake.
As a society, we need good marketing. This allows you to find things that interest you, including home goods, restaurants, service providers, churches, community activities, volunteer opportunities, entertainment options, and even local news. If you're a business owner or nonprofit leader, you need marketing to increase your visibility so people can find you. One of the reasons I started my marketing agency 20 years ago was to be able to foster better community dialogue between businesses, nonprofits, and residents. This has become especially important during the coronavirus pandemic. As people sit at home in front of their computers, online marketing has become a lifeline for both businesses and consumers to let people know what's open.
The best form of marketing is natural and relevant. No one likes creepy marketing stalking you online. You can go overboard with marketing. It's also true that almost all businesses are marketing, even when they think they're not. My favorite phrase I sometimes hear from fellow business owners is, “I don't believe in marketing. We have more than enough business.” That's wrong on many levels. Is there a sign outside your business? Do you have a logo, business cards, and letterhead? If so, you're doing some marketing, but probably not enough.
Now that you know what marketing is and why you need it, let's take a look at the 10 most common marketing mistakes local small business owners (and nonprofits) make. As a local business owner, I've made most of these mistakes myself.
- Marketing without a plan. This is the most common problem I see, but I find that many organizations are stumbling around with outdated websites, sporadic advertising, inconsistent branding, and no plan in place. is still surprising to me. This wastes time and money. At a minimum, an organization should have a written plan that defines marketing goals, objectives, activities, budgets, and performance measures. I've seen some great one-page marketing plans, but most tend to have a little more detail. What I often hear is, “I don't want to bother with planning. Get us number 1 on Google and get the leads.” You can't do that without a plan.
- confuse sales and marketing. Marketing is not the same as sales. So you can fight me. We have established that marketing is promotion and helps create conditions for sales. A sale occurs when someone actually purchases something. This may be done in person or online. Many companies misunderstand these two terms and rely too heavily on marketing to compensate for poor sales practices. You need both marketing and sales. Good marketing helps create the conditions for a sale, but it is not the sale itself. I said in a previous article that sales is the most important function of a business, and I support that idea, but sales is not marketing.
- Too dependent on introductions. Don't get me wrong. For local small businesses, referrals are often the best means of marketing. Even for marketing agencies, about 80% of leads come from referrals. However, referrals alone are not enough to sustain your business. Good marketing helps turn referrals into leads. Almost all referrals refer to his website to gain insight into the company's quality, reliability, and relevance. What happens if I stop getting referrals? Businesses should promote themselves using a wide range of marketing channels such as social media, newsletters, advertisements, and billboards. He doesn't put all his eggs in one basket.
- Underestimating the importance of quality. Your target market will instantly form an impression about your organization based on the quality of what they see. Avoid the temptation to save money with AI-generated document content, low-quality images, pixelated logos, outdated information, etc. When you see something like “Free Website Powered by Wix” printed in the footer of a website or “Get 50 Free Business Cards Powered by Vistaprint” printed on the back of a business card, it means that the company is serious enough to invest in itself. You can see that it's not. There is only one first impression. Strive for quality to stand out in a noisy world.
- Inability to keep online information accurate. I think this is frustrating for people trying to find information online. It's important to keep your contact information, business hours, location, and company information consistent across your website, social media, business directory listings, signage, and more. If your website says you're open for breakfast at 7 a.m., but your Facebook page says 8 a.m., people won't come to your restaurant. Be sure to regularly audit your online Point of Presence to ensure consistency.
- Miss out on free marketing opportunities. Yes, there are actually ways to do marketing cheaply and sometimes for free. Getting people to refer your business, claiming your Google Business listing, volunteering in your community, and creating ways for people to find you are all part of marketing on a budget. A great way to do that. Marketing doesn't have to be expensive, but it does need to be consistent. Networking in the community is one of the best ways to promote your business for free, and that's how I built my company.
- Too dependent on free/cheap marketing. Free is good, but it's not enough. Investing money and resources to secure customers for your business is inevitable. Set a monthly budget and invest a certain amount each month to drive your business. You may want to spend a little more for special events or promotions, but always spend your money and see what works best for you. If you don't spend money on marketing, your competitors will spend money and you won't be seen.
- Avoid ads and paid promotions. One of the most effective ways to get your message across to your target market is to invest in advertising, especially digital advertising. Digital advertising allows you to be very specific about who sees your message and how much you want to spend on it. Even better, you can actually track how many people take action, so you can measure your return on investment. This is even more difficult to achieve with traditional print advertising. The key to advertising is consistency and relevance. Advertising in this online newspaper is a great way to reach your local audience.
- Ignoring brand consistency. Don't be a business or nonprofit that uses different versions of your logo on signs, shirts, websites, and printed materials. Quality is important, but don't fall into the trap of simply “boosting your brand” by prioritizing style over content. Yes, style is important, but make sure it's consistent and sustainable. Inconsistent branding confuses your target market. High-quality visuals, tone, and consistency of messaging strengthen brand awareness and loyalty.
- ignore analysis and attribution. I'm still amazed at how many business leaders have no idea how many visitors their company's website gets or what the return on marketing investment is. You can't manage what you can't measure. “Well, they heard about me online” is not an analysis. Tracking the effectiveness of your marketing efforts using analytics allows you to focus on the activities that are effective and eliminate those that don't.
We all need marketing. If you are a business owner, you need marketing to promote your products and services to the right target audience. If you're a nonprofit leader, you need marketing to solicit donations and rally support for your cause. If you're a consumer, you need marketing to help you find what you're looking for efficiently and effectively. And sometimes you discover things you didn't know you needed. Marketing is both the art and science of promoting an organization in a creative and systematic way. Be deliberate with your marketing efforts and ensure high-quality, consistent messaging that can be measured and adjusted for optimal impact.
We look forward to seeing how your marketing efforts impact our community.
[Joe Domaleski, a Fayette County resident for 25 years, is the owner of Country Fried Creative – an award-winning digital marketing agency located in Peachtree City. His company was the Fayette Chamber’s 2021 Small Business of the Year.  Joe is a husband, father of three grown children, and proud Army veteran.  He has an MBA from Georgia State University and enjoys sharing his perspectives drawing from thirty years of business leadership experience. Sign up for the Country Fried Creative newsletter to get marketing and business articles directly in your inbox. ]
