Top 5 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2023

Starting and managing a business is not child’s play. Committing to certain mistakes can be disastrous. However, new businesses in Malaysia have shown an innate affinity for making huge mistakes.

As 90% of entrepreneurs in Malaysia hail from a technical background, it is extremely difficult to understand and adapt essential marketing principles. For long-term business success, there are marketing mistakes Malaysian Business owners should avoid at all costs.

Let’s get started with the top 5 marketing mistakes you should avoid in 2023.

Failure to Develop an Actionable Marketing Plan

Most small and medium businesses tend to run marketing campaigns without documented marketing plans. The main purpose of planning, in general, is to get a clear indication of what is expected to achieve within a specific time frame.

A marketing plan is an important aspect of marketing. Without a plan, how can you determine which direction your business is moving?

How can you improve your sales and revenue when there is no marketing plan?

One of the main reasons for businesses in Malaysia to fail within 1 or 2 years of operating is that they do not have a marketing plan that helps to market their products and services effectively.

Building a business is similar to building a house. Can you build a house without any architectural drawings or plans?

The same goes for the marketing plan. To stay longer in the business game, you need a solid marketing plan.

The following resources will help you develop a marketing plan for your business:

Getting obsessed with short-term marketing objectives

An important fact that you need to keep in mind: 9 out of 10 businesses in Malaysia fail, even after securing funds from different financial institutes. Although there are other factors lead to business failures, there is one crucial factor that matters the most, obsessed or disillusioned by short-term marketing goals. They tend to forget the importance of long-term marketing goals and focus too much on short-term marketing goals.

Businesses in Malaysia focused on spending their money on customer acquisition. But, if the majority of the money is being spent on acquiring customers, how to manage the other important operations part of the company?

Let’s take a look at a simple example here. You’re spending thousands on Google Ads and Facebook Ads to acquire customers. As your ads are offering a great discount for your products and services, the customers grab the deals offered by your business. However, this type of customer will not remain loyal to a particular brand.

If the competitors offer better discounts, the customers will jump ship immediately. Rather than acquiring fickle-minded customers that love discounts and promotions, focus more on providing quality products and services.

There are businesses in Malaysia focused on retaining their existing customers by offering faultless customer support and top-notch after-sales services. As businesses in Malaysia have abilities to disrupt their respective industries, it’s better to focus on retaining existing customers for the long term rather than acquiring new short-term customers.

The following resource will help you set the right marketing objectives.

Marketing Objectives: How to Set Them in Six Steps

Avoiding Digital Marketing

Digital marketing has been there for ages. Only 10% of businesses in Malaysia incorporate digital marketing into their marketing efforts. Most businesses are keen to spend on traditional marketing channels rather than digital marketing channels.

We understand the pain businesses went through by hiring the wrong digital marketing agencies. All because those low-quality agencies did not manage to produce results for the money you spent, it does not mean digital marketing is not working for you.

The following resources will help you identify the right digital marketing agencies to work with:

Do you know why digital marketing is essential for long-term business success?

The above study was conducted by Hootsuite. Almost half of the population uses the Internet today. The majority of customers are online today and somehow using search engines to perform searches and use social media channels to interact with friends and find their needs.

If your business is avoiding digital marketing, you’re losing potential customers to your competitors who are doing it. As most businesses in Malaysia still hesitate to implement digital marketing strategies, they will encounter huge failure in the long run.

Marketing on Wrong Channels

Promoting your products and services is a good strategy to get exposure for your businesses. However, what happens when you end up promoting them on the wrong marketing channels?

For example, your business is involved in selling computers and laptops. You promote your computers and laptops on television. Do you think your target market is always watching television?

The cost of television advertising is very high and the target market for watching television is more than 60 years old.

However, if you promote your computers and laptops on Facebook, you can choose the right target market at a relatively cheaper cost. Promoting on wrong marketing channel not only decrease your sales but also increases unwanted marketing expenditure.

The following resources will help you choose the right marketing channels to promote your products and services.

Giving Up On Marketing Too Early

Another common reason for business failures in Malaysia is because of giving up on marketing too early. If the marketing campaign is not working, the business owners simply give up and move to other options. This will create inconsistency in marketing efforts.

When you’re jumping from one marketing strategy to another, it will be extremely hard to identify what actually works for your business.

According to Business Strategist Eric Holtzclaw,

Marketing is about consistency. A consistent look and feel to your materials, the tone of your brand language and cadence that you produce and publish content is the only way to achieve good results.

When your marketing strategy is not working for your business, you need to analyze and determine the problems encountered and find the right solutions. Giving up and running away because it’s not working as you planned will only drive your business to failure.

The following resources will help you in being consistent with your marketing strategies.

If you’re reading this article, we’re pretty sure that you don’t want these marketing mistakes to affect your business. It takes a huge amount of time and effort to build sustainable businesses.

Identify the marketing mistakes your businesses are facing and come up with a plan to rectify those mistakes. Make sure to use the right people to work on your marketing efforts. Hiring the wrong people can affect your business performance and reputation as well.

Sometimes it may be overwhelming being an entrepreneur to watch over the marketing efforts. Continuously educating yourself while gaining experience from mistakes will make you and your business stronger.

Did you encounter other marketing mistakes and regret not rectifying them? Please share with us by commenting below.