7 Small Business Marketing Problems That’s Affecting Your Growth

Small business marketing problems are anything but small. Many entrepreneurs launch with passion but quickly hit a wall when it comes to visibility, sales, or customer retention. 

These challenges can turn passion into frustration, and drain business owners of their zeal, time, and marketing budgets.

In this guide, we’ll explore the top marketing problems facing small businesses, and offer insight into how to overcome them.

7 Small Business Marketing Problems That Hurt Growth

From inconsistent messaging to underperforming websites, here are the most persistent problems in marketing for small businesses today.

1. No Clear Marketing Strategy

Most common problems in marketing start with a lack of strategy. If you don’t have a clear marketing strategy then you might as well be walking around in the dark. So expect lots of falling, bumping into the wall, and breaking things you can’t see. 

From a marketing standpoint, this means falling into the trap of chasing trends, bumping into problems with your team, and breaking bonds with customers because they don’t trust you. As a small business, you can’t afford a marketing problem like this because it means wasting your already limited resources. 

Before you create any marketing campaign, email sequence, or even social media post, be sure to have a clear strategy to guide you along the way.

2. Limited Marketing Budget

The early days of business are fraught with challenges. One major challenge in particular is the budget. Most small businesses start off self funded and it takes a while before you get to the stage where profit is far greater than loss. For the average small business owner, there just aren’t enough resources to pour into marketing.

But if you don’t invest in marketing, your business remains obscure and unnoticed, which means no profit. It’s a bit of a catch 22: You need marketing to make money, but you need money to invest in marketing. So what do you do?

Set aside a certain amount or percentage that’s strictly for marketing. It’s okay if you can’t afford Google or Facebook Ads. What’s not okay is not advertising your business at all. No matter how tight your budget is, you should always earmark funds for marketing.

3. Finding, Understanding, and Engaging Target Audience

Your target audience is the bullseye of every marketing strategy. Every arrow you shoot, whether through social media, content marketing, or email, should hit your target audience right where it hurts. 

Your marketing strategies should hit their pain points and push them towards making the decision to move forward with your small business. This is why not understanding your target audience is like trying to shoot an arrow with a blindfold on. It rarely ever hits the target!

Marketing problems in business often stem from ignoring audience data, but when you pay attention, there’s so much you can learn. 

Here’s how you can define and understand your target audience:

Step 1: Study your current customers

Take the time to understand your current customers. Who are they? Why did they choose your brand? What problem are they trying to solve? This will give you more insight for the next step. 

Step 2: Create a buyer persona

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. Think of it like an avatar in a video game with a detailed section that tells you everything about them. Your buyer persona should describe your ideal customer to a tee, helping you create marketing campaigns that speak to that specific person.

4. Inconsistent Brand Messaging Across Channels

The consistency of your brand voice is crucial to the success of your small business. Your customers must be able to spot your voice in the loud crowded marketplace. That is what a consistent brand voice does for your business.

It makes customers feel connected to you and improves brand recognition. But to reap these benefits, your message must be consistent across all channels. Businesses with marketing problems often confuse customers by being inconsistent online and offline.

If you want to avoid this then you need to decide on a brand voice and stick to it. Whether you want your customers to know your business as funny, serious, or friendly, is up to you, but be sure to pick a brand voice and be consistent on all platforms. 

5. Struggles with Content Creation

Creating content takes time, effort, and a deep understanding of both the platform you’re working with and the people on that platform. Instagram isn’t Twitter, and Twitter certainly isn’t LinkedIn. Every platform requires its own approach and its own strategy for success. 

Beyond social media platforms, there are other ways to create content such as blog posts and webinars. Small business owners often spread themselves thin trying to create content for all these formats, and this quickly leads to burnout.

We advise that you outsource at least part of your content creation process. Hire a professional to create a calendar, hire a freelancer to write a few blog posts or the script for your webinar. 

Marketing problems for small businesses reduce greatly when you outsource tedious tasks so you can focus on what matters.

6. Choosing the Right Platform

Not every platform is right for your business. One of the most common marketing problems for small businesses is trying to show up everywhere at once without a clear reason why.

Here’s the truth: Just because a platform is popular doesn’t mean your business should be on it. Choosing the wrong platform means speaking to the wrong audience, using the wrong format, and ultimately wasting time, energy, and money.

Your ideal customer isn’t everywhere, so you shouldn’t be either.

Instead, focus your efforts on platforms where your audience already spends time and where your message fits the style of communication. For instance, a B2B business might perform better on LinkedIn than TikTok. A fashion brand might thrive on Instagram and Pinterest.

Be selective about where you advertise your small business. It’s better to dominate one channel than to be invisible on five.

7. Generating Leads

Figuring out how to consistently generate leads is a common small business marketing problem. The truth is that marketing that doesn’t generate leads is just noise. And that’s not what you want. So how do you create a system that attracts, nurtures, and converts potential customers?

Step 1: Start with what you have

Start simple. Offer a free checklist in exchange for an email address. Build an email list that you can nurture with a basic drip campaign. his way, you’re not just marketing for visibility, you’re marketing for conversions

Step 2: Optimize your sales funnel

Analyze your current sales funnel to find gaps and places where leads tend to fall off. Use the information you gather to improve your marketing. Create better content, improve customer experience, and track your progress.