The 11 items that follow are summaries of the areas where most businesses go wrong and waste their money.
1. Being company or product-centric, instead of customer-centric
This is the biggest problem I see with how the majority of businesses approach their market. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard or read something like “In business, all you have to do is find a need and fill it.” It’s sound advice, but it’s not the way most businesses work. Instead, the come up with a product and then try to figure out a way to convince people that they need it. They focus on how great what they offer is, instead of worrying about how they can make someone’s life better.
2. Not having a clear, concise and believable message
Trying to be all things to all people is a way to ensure that you won’t be anything to anybody. If you can’t ruthlessly hone your message to the point where it is very quickly obvious how you can greatly improve the prospect’s life in some way, your message will never be heard. People will not try to figure out what you’re saying. In fact, most will actively ignore you.
3. Not effectively communicating clear advantages
Consumers look at your business skeptically. Everything you say is viewed with a cynical eye. People need to be convinced that you can quickly and clearly help them. In an age of instant gratification, patience is very short. If you don’t communicate the advantages you offer to your prospect’s situation, you’re dismissed.
4. Not differentiating from the competition
This point ties in directly with #3. It’s not enough to just show how you can make the consumer’s life better. You also have to show how you can do it better than anyone else.
Why you, and not your competition? Most businesses have a host of competitors who are right beside them in the yellow pages or just a click away on the internet. Why, in comparing you side by side with everyone else, would someone decide that you are the best choice? If you don’t tell them in terms that emphasize what is important to them, they’ll move on. And they won’t stop to compare every point you make side by side with your competition. Consumers continually make snap or semi-informed judgments. Grab them quickly or someone else will.
5. Having no defined marketing goals
Every marketing piece you produce must have a clearly defined purpose. For instance, if you place an advertisement in a magazine, what are you trying to accomplish with it? If you said “We’re trying to get more business,” you’re not being specific enough. What exactly do you want to happen? Are you trying to generate phone calls? Do you want people to come see you? To visit your website? It’s great if overall revenue rises after implementing a campaign, but without knowing which elements are performing, you won’t know exactly why.
6. Having poor marketing materials
If you were going out on a first date, would you show up unshowered, with messy hair and dirty clothes, assuming that your date would look past all that to “the real you?” Probably not, and neither will consumers. We all make judgments based on appearance. If your marketing materials are poor, you’ll be perceived the same way. It won’t matter if you have the greatest product in the world, you’ll never get the chance to show it off.
7. Being generic
Superlatives in advertising are ineffective. There are so many INCREDIBLE!!! offers out there that incredible is the new average. Nobody believes that your offer is incredible if you tell them it’s incredible. Same goes for other bombastic words. If you want someone to believe what you’re saying, get specific. Instead of just telling someone that your selection is gigantic, tell them exactly how gigantic it is. In one sentence you can tell them how many varieties, colors, manufacturers, etc. you offer. People will believe specifics much more than superlatives.
8. Being too diluted
If you’re trying to say everything in each marketing effort, you’re wasting your time and your money. Instead of trying to make four separate points with one advertisement, for example, you’re much better off making just your strongest point with the advertisement. Make another point with another ad. Remember- if you try to tell someone more than one thing, especially when they don’t want to hear it in the first place, they won’t come away with anything. Target your message clearly, always.
9. Not reaching the right market
Obvious in concept, but difficult in execution. Reaching the right people is usually an inexact science. And most businesses haven’t researched who their best customer really is. They’re trying to sell everything they have to everyone they can reach. By narrowing the focus to a tightly defined market, impact per impression will be much greater. Because the scope is narrower, the repetition can be higher for the same investment. And that usually translates into better results.
10. Not testing
A slight change of your headline can result in a dramatic difference in the response rate. A small shift in the focus of the offer can increase effectiveness by several times. But how do you find these things out before you’ve spent your marketing budget? It’s simple- testing. Test your advertisement or offer on a small scale. Track the results. Change one thing and one thing only, like the headline, offer or guarantee, and run it again on a small scale. Feedback will be quick and easy to gauge if you’re tracking the results. Only when you have a clear winner should you commit your marketing budget.
11. Not tracking results
How do you know if what you’re doing is actually working? Not carefully tracking responses will lead to confusion, wasted time and money. Asking customers where they heard about you and using promotion-specific codes are just a couple of ways to monitor the source of your business. The data from this allows you to quickly dump your underperforming marketing and redirect the money into profitable areas.
About the Author
Derek Fisch is founder and President of Velocity Media, the leading marketing and advertising agency for small business. http://www.velocitymediainc.com .
NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a link to your reprint to derek@velocitymediainc.com.
Filed under: Small Business Marketing , Marketing Mistakes
