7 Serious Marketing Dilemmas Holding Your Brand from Growth

Marketing is the most important part of a business because it possesses the power to make or break it. Because of that, business owners put in much effort into trying to make their marketing campaigns but they may not always get the results they expected.

That hinders the growth of the brand exponentially and that’s why it is one of the most critical business management tips. A failing marketing campaign needs to be revised and reshaped to better achieve the goals of the business.

To be able to identify where you are going wrong, here are seven serious marketing dilemmas that may be holding your brand from growing:

#1. Not knowing when to cut the losses

There is a saying amongst gamblers that goes, “a winner knows when to quit.” The substance of this saying is that to succeed, you need to understand when it is time to cut your losses and peer into other avenues.

That is especially true in marketing. There is a lot at stake in this field that propels the brand you’re managing to greater heights. Because of that, you can’t waste budgeted money in a failing marketing campaign, so you need to know when to pull the plug.

The problem of continuing with a failing marketing strategy has affected many businesses and exponentially limited their growth. It is possible that you are also being held back by the same problem.

Remember, not every campaign or marketing channel will be a major success. Actually, most of them might fail by the experience of some marketers.

Holding on to unsuccessful marketing campaigns might also delay the implementation of the ones that will actually work. Measuring the success of a marketing campaign timely will help accomplish just that.

Compare the metrics you used to measure the growth with the goals you had in mind when starting out and determine if that campaign is successful. If you are spending too much for less value, which is the conversions you are getting, it might be prudent to move on to another carefully considered campaign.

The ability to identify a failing marketing campaign is very valuable for the growth of the brand you’re managing and helps save funds budgeted for. You can use AI to boost business growth by implementing it to measure the success rate with the relative metrics.

#2. Inability to draw the attention of customers and retaining it

The whole point of a marketing strategy is to gain the attention of potential customers and then retaining it. However, sometimes the strategy you are implementing may not be much as fruitful and in some cases, you wouldn’t be the one to blame.

Although that is true, you still need to ensure that you are doing your best to attract customers and keep their attention. The current generation has encountered thousands of sales pitches, either directly or indirectly.

That gives them the ability to detect a sales pitch from a mile away and find ways to avoid it. Product focused marketing content drives customers away, especially if it is directly from the brands.

If you are running an ad campaign that directly sells the product to your customers, that’s where you may be going wrong. Running a marketing strategy like this can sometimes portray you as selfish because you don’t really care about the consumers’ problems but for profit instead. To avoid the negative outcome caused by selling directly to customers, you can let others help with the advertising.

The efficacy of User Generated Content is starting to be recognized and influencer marketing has become very popular. You can use micro-influencers for marketing the products you’re selling and run a successful campaign.

Also, instead of creating adverts, make the brand you’re running as an experience or a lifestyle that customers can adopt. Encourage existing customers to relate that experience on social media platforms to reach more potential clients. Most importantly, make the content you post customer-focused instead of focusing on the qualities of your brand.

#3. Failing to engage customers meaningfully

An unengaged audience will result in more money being spent on marketing efforts with very little results or none at all. Because of that, all marketing campaigns should ensure that the engagement levels of their audience are up to par.

An unengaged audience leaves you at a higher rate of customers leaving you to support the competition. Trying to win back customers is an extremely hard task to do and there is a higher possibility that you might never get them back.

How can you keep an audience engaged? Keeping an audience engaged is no easy task at all; hard work, passion, and determination are required to pull this off.

Being passionate about the brand you are running will show in the way you engage with customers. The way you engage with them will be more meaningful because you will be discussing something you love. You also need to work hard to keep them engaged and that entails posting regularly on all social media platforms.

Don’t just post content on the blog you’re running for the brand. Instead, look for other platforms your audience mostly uses and then engage with them on those mediums.

You can also use video content to connect with them and the setup you use doesn’t have to be expensive. A smartphone, lighting and editing software is sufficient to produce engaging videos for social media and that can be embedded in blog posts.

You can also engage customers by creating challenges that they can have a part in and probably sometimes, you might need to reward the winner. Although it may come at a cost, brands that engage with customers show that they are lively and potential clients gravitate towards them.

#4. Getting the priorities skew

Prioritizing is very important in marketing to spend the budget wisely. Focusing on marketing methods that are ineffective could be the core reason that is holding the brand you’re managing back. The targeted audience surely has something in common. It may be income, industry, location or other demographical information.

Determining the common ground of the audience, you targeted will help you dive deeper into the search of what should be prioritized. For example, determining that the targeted audience is mostly made up of people of a high-income bracket, it’ll be easier to find out how to reach them.

Perhaps it could be email marketing that’s most convenient amongst them because that’s what they use daily and they consider this medium professional. However, on the other hand, if the targeted audience is made of regular millennials, working on a social media campaign will benefit you the most.

By doing that, you will be able to allocate the budget accordingly and investing more in the method that is most likely to work. However, when focused on one particular medium, don’t ignore the others but also be active in them too foolproof the campaign.

When ensuring that you are active on all mediums and platforms, prioritize the content also. Prioritizing the content means making the content relevant for each particular platform, for example, on Instagram, posting pictures without long captions is the best way to go.

On the other hand, blog posts can’t be made up of mostly pictures but written content is required. In essence, digital marketers and business owners should tailor-make the content for each digital marketing platform.

#5. Inaccurate brand image

Another dilemma that your brand may face is that customers can get the wrong perception of what the company offers. There are various causes to this but some of them are an unclear name that is easily confusable with a different trade.

Other causes may be a company with a similar name or logo that is the polar opposite of the brand you’re managing. The result of that confusion would be that customers don’t come to you when they need items that you offer.

Revenues will be limited and the brand’s image may continue being distorted and even confuse more people. Also, if the offers of business aren’t clear, people might make up their own image that is inaccurate and inconsistent with what you do. For example, Aflac faced a similar problem and had to release a commercial that cleared out any confusion about their brand’s offering.

You can avoid this problem by being clear when explaining the product range you have and also ensure that the customers also understand fully. If you are at the brand development step, consider choosing a name that won’t cause any confusion.

When designing the logo, make it clear what you are involved in by using appealing icons that will draw the attention of the targeted audience.

#6. Failing to manage the business’ website

Managing a company website can be a lot of work because there are too many moving pieces that need to be perfectly optimized. A failing website won’t generate enough exposure to the targeted audience and where you may be going wrong is focusing too much on the appearance.

Although the appearance is also an important factor in building a site that is user-friendly, there are other more important issues to address. For example, optimizing the brand’s website to rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) is a very critical step.

Having a website that loads slowly doesn’t satisfy customers and Google has noticed that and created an algorithm that bumps down sites that have this problem. Another thing that makes Google’s algorithm bump down websites is the content you write. If it isn’t unique, lacks authority and does not offer high-quality industry opinion, it might rank you lower.

Most importantly, if it isn’t mobile-friendly, Google’s algorithm won’t recommend it because there are more mobile users on the internet now. The theme you choose will have an impact on the SEO friendliness of the site you’re running because it will affect both the speed and mobility of the site.

#7. Determining which technology should be implemented

Determining the best technologies that should be used in a business’ marketing campaign is another thing that could be causing limited growth.

If you are using the wrong technologies, the money used to implement them will result in wasted financial resources that could be better allocated. Alternatively, the technologies you are using might limit the growth of the brand if they aren’t used to the full.

Learning how to effectively use the marketing tools for your outreach and overall branding campaign you’re running is a great way to boost the growth of your brand.

The reason behind this is that business owners often look for advice from colleagues, friends or family. Although sometimes they can get solid insight from these people, they might also get recommendations that are inconsistent with their brand.

Instead of relying solely on these recommendations, carefully plan the marketing strategy you will implement. While doing the planning, draft scope of works and identify the tasks you can automate to streamline the tasks.

You can choose from tools that will help you automate processes such as posting on social media at the desired date, gathering marketing information and personalizing content.

The bottom line

Marketing campaigns often face difficulties and some of them may be detrimental to the revenue made by the business depending on their magnitude. It is important to note when you should quit and jump ship to another marketing method and having the courage to do so.

Failing to engage with customers will also cripple the marketing prospects you have in place, studying the market will help you determine the best way to do so. Don’t neglect the SEO side of marketing by focusing on decreasing the loading speed of the site and its mobility. By doing so, you will be wisely using the resources you have.

About the Author!

Scott Mathews is a content writing expert who’s currently with some of the best paper writing services and digital publishing. His current assignment as an academic writer is with College papers, Custom papers and Assignment help in Australia. He regularly shares valuable writing tips and advice through his blog and podcasts.