It can be tricky to identify why your business might not be doing as hot as you’d like. There could be external factors, such as low customer intent, tough competition, or a global pandemic. There is also the potential for internal factors affecting business.
As a business, it can be tough to look internally to see what isn’t working. You would like to think that you are always doing what is best for your business, and while your intentions are most likely pure, how you are going about it might not be the most effective.
Let’s take a look at some internal factors that could be stunting your business growth.
1. You aren’t posting clear, engaging content
People are simple, yet very confusing beings. If you give them too many options, there is potential they can become overwhelmed and lose interest. If you give them few or no options, they are less likely to become engaged because they don’t feel that they have enough choice… So how do we find that sweet middle ground?
The answer is easier than you think: deliver a clear message, with a single focus point. Why just one focal point, you might ask? Like we previously stated, people are simple. As a business, you don’t want to overwhelm prospective customers with too much information, but you do want to provide enough that you at least get them interested. Your content should be short and memorable!
2. You aren’t speaking directly to your audience’s problem(s)
While you might have great descriptions for your products or services, if you don’t position them as a direct solution to your prospective customer’s problems, they likely won’t convert. I know you’re probably wondering why those descriptions that you spent hours on aren’t working, and try not to take it personally (something we are all guilty of!).
Yes, people are simple — but in that same vein, people are also confusing. Our brains are wired to automatically filter out information that does not directly affect us, and in marketing, we can use this to our advantage. By acknowledging your products or services as a direct solution to the customer’s problem, it changes the way they view your business and services. Success!
3. Your SEO isn’t up to par
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, can be complicated for even the most experienced marketers. A common mistake that marketers make is focusing on search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) and not user intent (how they are searching, what they are searching for, and how often they are searching). By shifting your focus to user intent, you are essentially stepping into the mind of your ideal customer, which allows you to more accurately target your ideal audience base within your market.
Keep in mind the content you post should serve as a useful guide to your customers and your headlines should be SEO friendly to ensure they show up in a search. Customers are more likely to convert when they feel that your business will help make their problems easier.
Check out our recent post on optimizing SEO for blogs for some more useful tips.
4. Your emails aren’t lead-generation friendly
Email marketing is a highly valuable tool for marketers, and unfortunately, that means the work you produce for email marketing needs to be perfect. Talk about pressure! Luckily, email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. The first step in making email marketing easier is learning how to direct the reader’s attention. Seems easy enough, right? Similarly to speaking directly to a customer’s problem, our brains are selective with the information it receives. You want to vary the elements and sizes of text within the email; and here is some more information on visual hierarchy.
Other important factors to consider are how you utilize white space, using colors that contrast instead of blend, and placing elements higher in the email rather than lower. Get creative with it! Another thing to note about email marketing is that you want to keep your emails short and try to only have one focal point per email. This ties into how your social content should be short, sweet, and focused on one product, service, or testimony at a time.
5. You aren’t delivering a clear message
How likely are you to remember something someone said to you when their story was full of irrelevant details? If you’re anything like us, that would be not very likely. The same logic applies to companies that ramble about their products or services without delivering a clear message. Customers simply want to hear that your business has a direct solution to their problem. That’s it!
When you think about marketing in this sense, it almost feels silly at how simple it is. But it really is as simple as your business offering a solution that will make their lives easier.
Feeling stuck? We want to help! Schedule a free discovery call with us today!
6. You don’t know your numbers
Without tracking your numbers, how would you determine your growth? Luckily, you don’t need to be an expert analyst to check how your business is doing. There are simple plugins you can add to your website to track analytics, such as MonsterInsights, that make checking your analytics a breeze. They provide you with custom reports and break all of the data down into charts that you can actually understand.
Your website data will tell you everything you need to know about how well your campaigns are working to engage customers, how many calls you’ve sourced from your website alone, or how well engaging your social media content is. By looking at your numbers, you know exactly what is — and isn’t working. Yes, please!
7. You are guilty of siloing your departments
Managing a business means having a lot on your plate — always. Between sales, marketing, and creatives, there are a lot of projects to be done and different goals for each department. So how can you ensure that every department is working together to reach a common goal? Simple! Don’t “silo” your departments. Let’s talk a little bit about what siloing your departments might look like:
- Your marketing department wants to focus on increasing email engagement by 20% in the next quarter
- Your sales department wants to focus on strategic sales
While these goals are important to the individual departments, they aren’t necessarily working together to achieve those goals. How can this affect your business? If your departments aren’t constantly communicating, you are limiting your resources and you might be causing more harm than good to your business by doing so. It is super important that all of your department’s pieces work together and set department goals that complete the puzzle of your overall business goals.
This portion ties well into siloing departments. It is so important for your team to strive for the same outcome (growing your business). Having different department goals is totally fine (and encouraged)! What matters most is that those department goals work together to create a greater outcome for the business overall.
Think of it as each department having complementary tasks to complete. The goals will still be appropriate for the assigned department, however, it will benefit everyone involved if multiple departments (but ideally every department) work together. We are a team, after all!
9. One-off marketing
Here is where most marketers go wrong: you can’t stop marketing after one go at it. In order to make headway in your industry, you must consistently post and market your business.
But the fun doesn’t stop there!
The content that you use to market your business needs to be in brand with your company and the quality of the content needs to be exquisite. You won’t gain 100 clients from one email campaign (let alone 5 if we are being realistic), so you can expect to put in some work to grow your client base.
10. You aren’t producing enough automation
If you are new to marketing automation, this post beautifully explains what automation is and even recommends some of the best software out there.
Here’s the gist on why automation is nothing but great for your business: automation allows you to schedule out blogs, social media posts, and even campaigns so you can spend more time giving your clients the attention and excellent service they deserve! By not producing enough automation, you are only limiting what you can achieve professionally.
In conclusion…
If you aren’t consistently marketing your business, how will anyone get to know about it? Whether you utilize marketing automation, are a social butterfly and network often, or even old-fashioned word of mouth. There are business opportunities everywhere, and we need to be ready to jump at any chance we get!
Happy Evolving!
