Doing marketing is one of the many things that are exciting about running a business. The reason it is so exciting is the fact that practically every marketing strategy is unexplored terrain for you. There is no exact way to market your business which leads into you having a lot of creative liberty. There are a million marketing strategies already and it is up to you to tailor a strategy that meets your needs and what works best for your business.

Marketing is a trial-and-error game and I prefer to make mistakes when doing marketing. Why? Because when you make mistakes, you learn, you get the privilege to discover what doesn't work and you can try new things to market your business.

There are however some mistakes that many marketing rookies have made before you. To save you time and energy I wrote down some tips for you so you can prevent these commonly made mistakes from happening.

This probably sounds like an obvious tip but many business owners started their marketing without writing down their plan first. Save your time and energy for the creative part of marketing. Write down your plan on how you'll market your business and write down your goals.

A marketing plan is the first step in doing marketing. Read into it and make yourself one, it'll save a lot of time and energy.

There are many, many businesses out there, and some of them are probably similar to yours. Nonetheless your business is unique, there is no other business out there like yours. That is probably why you started your business. If you want to reach the people that fit your client profile and you want to market your business effectively, identify what differentiates your from your competitors. Investigate your unique selling proposition (USP) and use it as a red wire through your marketing.

Running a business is time-consuming job, let alone how much time and energy it takes to found and start one. Small-business owners are trying to do everything possible in as little time as possible, but in the end of the day the are still lacking in time. For that reason people love routines, they are a great way to manage our time better and leads us to be as efficient as possible.

For marketing however routines are not always the best way to do the job, especially if your marketing is delivering results like you wanted it to do. The world of marketing is evolving every day and the only way to stay on top of the game is to stay in tune with the latest changes. Don't be afraid to try new marketing tools because they possibly could finally deliver the results you've always hoped for. For a retail-owner Sayl Retail and our Post A Shop app is one of those tools to save time and connect and sell to your community.

Even though everybody wants to sell as much as possible, it is wrong to assume that everybody wants or needs your product. The product or service that you sell might speak to a broad audience, but it's the people that would really would consider buying it you want to market to. Identify yourself with this crowd and narrow down your target by making a client profile. Now that you have a client profile you can target your marketing directly at them.

Many business owners are so focused on running good marketing campaigns that they often forget that having a great customer experience and service is also a way of marketing. By not only providing a great product or service, but also a great experience and service, you create the possibility of your happy customers doing the marketing for you. There is no better way of reaching a potential customer through a happy customer. Not only does this bring you new customers, but also returning customers. Ergo win-win.

Eversince Facebook arrived the Social Media has exploded. There are numerous platforms that are specialized in visual platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest, community platforms such as reddit or article/blog based platforms such as Medium. Marketing at Social Media is still one of the most effective and affordable techniques out there, if you play your cards right. Use Social Media by aiming your target audience and personalize your marketing towards them as Social Media users.

Thanks to Sayl Retail you can now combine your Facebook-presence with mini webshop. Not only do you save time this way but you also create engagement with your followers unlike any other.

While you already differentiated yourself from the competition by defining your unique selling points, there is still a lot you can learn from your competitors. A good start is to simply use Google Search and learn about keywords. Next to that follow your competitors on Social Media and analyze the content of their campaigns.

Don't see a competitor just as someone who is in the same business as you, see them as someone who is trying to steal business from you. Conduct a SWOT analysis for every major or inspiring competitor and use that analysis to make your business stronger.

Now that you've read these 7 tips it's time for you to focus on what truly matters: getting your brand out there.