Self-employed people have an uphill battle when it comes to marketing. Many often lack the resources it takes to market their products or services effectively on a certain level. This often results in ineffective marketing practices and produces poor results. Self-employed people must be careful to avoid these common marketing mistakes when it comes to promoting their businesses. There are some very important marketing mistakes to avoid when you are self-employed.

Trying to market to everyone is one of the biggest problems many self-employed people face in promoting their business. Whether developing custom signs online or implementing a marketing campaign, you must understand how to best connect with your likely buyers. It is important that you fully understand who you are and where you fit in as a business in the marketplace. You have to recognize your limitations and understand that it is impossible to market to everyone in a meaningful way. It is much better to focus on developing a marketing strategy that focuses exclusively on a particular audience.

Failure to communicate well as a brand using social media is another common mistake self-employed make. If you are going to maintain a social media presence, be sure to develop a communication strategy that reflects what your business stands for in the best possible light. Focus on making each update relevant, timely and meaningful for your ideal customer. Develop your messaging to discuss your services in products in a way that communicates value to the consumer. Talk about your business. In social media, you must conduct yourself as a reputable, professional brand with something to offer.

Failure to not promote your offline activities is another mistake self-employed people making in marketing. If you are going to be attending offline, networking events, communicate that with your audience. If you will be a guest speaker at an upcoming event or have been invited to be a keynote speaker at a convention, promote the event and your brand. In your office space, you can even have custom banner signs announcing your involvement in a particular event. In promoting your brand-related offline activities, you are making your brand more accessible.

Not measuring the results of any marketing activities is another common problem. It is difficult to know what works and what doesn’t if you are unaware of where your brand is falling short in its marketing. Every result, every campaign and every lead generated from any of those campaigns should be tracked. The average self-employed individual only has a limited amount of time available to devote to marketing, so it is important to really make it count and know which areas they are seeing the greatest results.

These are the top mistakes many self-employed people make when it comes to marketing their business. Avoiding these mistakes will help you get the most out of your marketing activities.