Have you made marketing mistakes? You’re not alone. Nearly every business makes marketing mistakes. You may be more susceptible if you’re a small business without a marketing staff and a process.
The good news is that marketing mistakes can actually help your marketing efforts — if you learn from those mistakes. Has this happened to you?
You have excellent products or services, great-looking ads and a professionally designed logo. So why isn’t your marketing delivering? It could be that your marketing materials look great but fail to set you apart from your competition. Your unique selling position (USP) should answer the question: “Why should customers do business with me instead of my competitors?”
If your USP isn’t clearly defined and easily explained in your marketing materials, it will be harder to stand out in a crowded field. For example, simply saying you offer excellent customer service isn’t a USP. Free delivery and pickup is a USP.
That brings me to another important piece of the successful marketing message puzzle. Make sure that you are selling benefits, not features. Customers buy things that solve their problems or fill a need. To market effectively, you need to speak to the needs of your customers. While the fact that you’ve been in business for 25 years indicates stability, customers don’t buy stability.
How easy is it to do business with you? You could have a wonderful marketing campaign, but if customers find it difficult or frustrating to do business with you, you will lose their business. Your ads may be great and your Web site spectacular, but if people have to work to find your phone number or e-mail address, you’re wasting your marketing dollars. It sounds so simple, yet businesses do forget to include necessary contact information or place it in a conspicuous place in marketing messages.
If successful marketing relies on filling the needs of your customers, it’s imperative that you learn what those needs are. That seems easy enough. Yet it’s not uncommon for businesses to get this wrong, because instead of asking customers what they want and need, they make assumptions.
You may think that fast service is what customers want, when what they actually want more than anything is a personal touch. Consequently, your marketing message is weakened because you focus on fast service.
How regular are your marketing efforts? Yes, there are products and services that people buy on the spur of the moment, but in most cases consumers need time and reminders to become familiar with your business. To do this, you need to make sure potential customers see or hear about you regularly. In other words, it’s unlikely that you will get stellar results if you only run one ad.
Another common marketing mistake is operating without a marketing plan. Your plan doesn’t have to be an endless document that covers each and every detail, but it does require some thought. Without a marketing plan you’re more likely to implement hit-or- miss marketing techniques. Valuable marketing dollars are often wasted because your advertising and marketing efforts are not consistent. Yes, sometimes you have to take marketing risks, but your entire marketing effort should not be a risk.
Congratulations if you’ve made any of these mistakes and learned from them. You’re on your way to becoming a better marketer.