Why Your Marketing
Sucks and What You
Can Do About It
Sophie Logan
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● PPC Lead at Beauhurst
● 10 years’ experience
● Platinum Google Ads
Expert
● Conference speaker
● Search Engine Land
Author
● Girls in Marketing Mentor
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● 4 common SMB
marketing mistakes
● How to overcome them
● Summary
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1. Getting
distracted
by new shiny
things.
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There is ALWAYS
something new and shiny
coming out.
“This is THE next big thing in
marketing…”
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“They’re putting
out TikTok videos,
so we need to get
Jerry from Sales to
do a dance whilst
wearing a chicken
suit too…”
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Trying something new is.…
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Risky.
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Not guaranteed to work.
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Distracts us.
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The next time the ‘next big thing’ pops
up, ask yourself…
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In 3 months time, would this still be
something that I would be interested
in doing?
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How is this marketing
activity/platform relevant to my
business?
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Which marketing activities are already
working for my business, and how can
I grow those rather than try something
new?
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Do I realistically have the time, skills
and resources to be able to do a
thorough job of trying this out?
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SMBs need to make
calculated, rational decisions
in order for long term
marketing success.
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2. Not knowing their
audience.
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What does your target audience
look like?
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● Male
● In their late 70’s
● High earner
● Parent
● Married
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Demographics - Age, sex, location,
marital status, employment status…
Behaviour - What are their
interests? What content do they like
to consume? What are their pain
points? What is important to them?
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● Customer surveys
● Website analytics analysis
● Market research projects
● CRM data analysis
● Reviewing reviews to identify
commonalities
● Sales team interviews
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With a deeper understanding of
your target audience, you can
better tailor your marketing
efforts to cater to their wants and
needs.
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For example…
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GA4 shows that our FAQ page is one
of the most frequently visited pages
on our site.
This could mean that visitors to our
site aren’t easily finding the
information they need.
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● Add a FAQ section to all product
pages
● Run a FAQ organic social campaign
● Write blogs on each FAQ topic to
expand on them in more detail
● Review website content to ensure
that key information is clear and
concise
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Our survey showed that 33% of our
customers are active on Reddit.
This suggest that our target
audience may also be using the
platform on a regular basis.
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● Explore Reddit Ads as a potential
platform to expand into
● Create a business profile and start
engaging in relevant discussions on
the platform
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Your marketing NEEDS to
resonate with your target
audience, so make sure that you
understand them.
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3. Not doing the type of
marketing they enjoy.
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“The only way to do
great work is to love
what you do.”
- Steve Jobs
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If your heart isn’t in it, you’re not
going to want to:
● Dedicate time to it
● Grow and develop your skills in it
● Persist when things get tough
● Enjoy your work
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To work out what it is that
you enjoy:
● Get out a piece of paper
and some pens
● Write down all the
marketing tasks you do
● Start highlighting what you
enjoy
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If it’s something you enjoy:
● Does it make business sense to expand it?
● What skills do you need to work on to help
you improve on this?
● Are you up to date with the latest news and
announcements?
● Is there any courses you could take?
● Are you actively involved in relevant
communities?
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If it’s not something you enjoy:
● Does it make business sense to continue
doing it? Is it effective?
● Can you outsource the work?
● Is there any changes you can make which
would help you to enjoy it?
● Is your lack of enjoyment because it is
difficult. If so, what can you do to make it
easier?
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Find that balance.
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4. Setting and forgetting
their marketing
strategy.
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When was the last time that you:
● Analysed your marketing
performance
● Researched new concepts and
platform
● Look into marketing trends
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● Explored industry benchmarks
and realigned your KPIs
● Brainstormed new ideas
● Carried out competitor research
● Looked for trends and
seasonality issues within your
performance
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There is
simply not
enough time.
But as a result things
become stale.
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● Platform changes
● Industry progression
● Competitor changes
● Policy/legal/regulation changes
● Changes to the wants and needs
of the target audience….
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You can’t afford to set and forget.
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It doesn’t have to be a whole
new marketing strategy.
Start small.
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● Strength
● Weaknesses
● Opportunities
● Threats
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If you only take away one
thing from my talk, let it be
this….
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Go back and look at
your marketing
strategy.
And when you do, make sure that you…
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Have an honest and
unbiased review of your
recent marketing
performance
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Work on new
campaigns/concepts/strategies
and put plans in action to
implement them
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Set a reminder for 6 months
time and repeat the process.
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Don’t get left behind.
Keep your marketing fresh
and relevant.
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Summary
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Don’t give into
pressure to do
what your
competitors are
doing, unless it's
right for your
business.
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Don’t give into
pressure to do
what your
competitors are
doing, unless it's
right for your
business.
Similarly keep
focusing on
what brings in
value for your
business, not
just what the
latest trend is.
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Get to know your
audience on a
behavioural level
and implement
that into your
marketing
activities.
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Get to know your
audience on a
behavioural level
and implement
that into your
marketing
activities.
Find marketing
activities which
you enjoy. It’s
easier to make
something work
when you feel
motivated.
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Don’t set and
forget your
marketing
strategy.
Try to reassess
on a 6 month
basis.