When it comes to your company’s marketing, chances are you have some blind spots. Guilty of any of the following? Now’s the time to address the issue!

You don’t have a plan – If your company doesn’t have a marketing plan (even if it’s an informal plan residing in your head), you’re really just flying blind, hoping for the best. You haven’t thought through your strategy. You don’t know what tactics you plan to use. You don’t have a budget or goals. You may not have even defined your target market. If you don’t have a plan, your entire marketing program is one big blind spot!

You’re making decisions without data – For example, many small businesses will place an ad in one of those glossy color mailers that arrive in consumer mailboxes each month with specials from multiple local business. Then they won’t capture the data needed to systematically track and analyze the program’s results. How many responses did the program generate? How many of these prospects turned into customers? Based on the sales associated with the program, what was the ROI? Is it worth continuing the program or not?

You’re pushing products when prospects are hunting for ideas – This is a common issue when companies first start delving into content marketing. You want to sell your products. But what buyers really want is helpful information. Prospective customers don’t care about you or your products. All they care about is finding a way to solve the problems and challenges that they face. You need to logically address the questions that they will have as they move through the sales process. And the biggest question to address is, “What’s in it for me?”

You’re forgetting that your prospects have blind spots, too – There’s a lot of truth to the saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Sometimes prospects don’t even know what to ask in order to make an informed decision. It’s your job to educate them, such as with useful checklists, informative articles, how-to videos and so forth.

For example, say a buyer is looking for an air conditioning unit for their computer room. If they haven’t heard about variable capacity technology, they won’t notice that your competitor’s products don’t have it. Unless, of course, they have visited your website and read your article that explains this technology and how it can lower their energy usage and increase their equipment’s reliability.