5 Costly mistakes to avoid marketing your business
Posted by Jaime Moyano on Monday, March 21, 2011
Under: Local Marketing
When creating a marketing strategy plan, lots of business owners start thinking like a marketer (or at least how they think a marketer think...) and then try to implement everything they have known or heard in the past. Please keep in mind this costly mistakes that you need to avoid at all costs...
1. Not thinking like a customer: For some reason we forget what we do every time we are not on the Marketer Position, and then create a lot of strategies and campaigns that we already know are not working. How do we know? Easy. We wouldn't buy that way... As the business owner you will feel the need to get your business on the Yellow pages book, however as a client you know that you haven't open the book for months now. Think how would you react as a customer to your campaign and adjust accordingly.
2. Create false expectations: Nothing worst that expect miracles from your campaigns or your strategy. I have had some clients that for years, they didn't spend any money on marketing, rely on referrals and word of mouth, and then, they create a website, and expect that their phone wont stop ringing. WRONG!!! There are some campaigns that will deliver immediate results but it is imperative that you understand that marketing is not a way to triple your sales next month. However, it is a way to ensure that you will have a future on your business, and that you will grow every month.
3. Loose your clients information: Everytime the phone rings as the result of any of your campaigns, you need to know that you paid for that phone call, and unless you are good gathering information you will have to pay for the same client again. It is very easy to implement a system to collect information to contact your customer again.
4. Change your campaigns. any marketing campaingn is a way you have into changing the minset of some one else. Unfortunately, unless your marketing campaign involves hypnosis, you won't be able to change a paradigm that most people develop thru all their lives in a matter of weeks. When people is exposed to your campaigns, they need time to understand what you offer, create credibility on your brand or service, and then get ready to buy. Advertising is a game of numbers. For example, lets take a printed ad on a local newspaper. Usually, a potential prospect need to see the ad a minimum of 9 times to be able to associate your brand, get confident, and be ready to initiate contact. The problem is that the average prospect won't see your add every time you are published. The number is one out of three. What that means is that you need to publish your ad a minimum of 27 times (based on weekly publication) to be able to generate some results. So, if you got anxious after the 3rd or 4th week, and change your campaign, or jump to other chanel, you just lost your time, your money, and even worst, generate a bad feeling on those who saw your ad and now can't see it again. Probably they now think that you were just an occasional business.
5. Take yourself for granted. This is one of the most common mistakes i have seen on small business and professionals. Sure you have great ideas, and you have the ability to put together some campaigns, but you cant take yourself for granted. Not planning ahead for your absence is foolish and a recipe for disaster. You need to create systems. A system is an ordered list of steps that you need to accomplish something, with the instructions on where and how to do them. At the office we have lots of checklists. From the moment you call to set an appointment, we are running systems. It make it a lot easier to train other people, and to step aside of all the processes on your company. That will allow you to replicate the process, outsource and use your tine on getting new good ideas.
This mistakes can hold you on getting your marketing off the ground. Make sure you stay away from them.
1. Not thinking like a customer: For some reason we forget what we do every time we are not on the Marketer Position, and then create a lot of strategies and campaigns that we already know are not working. How do we know? Easy. We wouldn't buy that way... As the business owner you will feel the need to get your business on the Yellow pages book, however as a client you know that you haven't open the book for months now. Think how would you react as a customer to your campaign and adjust accordingly.
2. Create false expectations: Nothing worst that expect miracles from your campaigns or your strategy. I have had some clients that for years, they didn't spend any money on marketing, rely on referrals and word of mouth, and then, they create a website, and expect that their phone wont stop ringing. WRONG!!! There are some campaigns that will deliver immediate results but it is imperative that you understand that marketing is not a way to triple your sales next month. However, it is a way to ensure that you will have a future on your business, and that you will grow every month.
3. Loose your clients information: Everytime the phone rings as the result of any of your campaigns, you need to know that you paid for that phone call, and unless you are good gathering information you will have to pay for the same client again. It is very easy to implement a system to collect information to contact your customer again.
4. Change your campaigns. any marketing campaingn is a way you have into changing the minset of some one else. Unfortunately, unless your marketing campaign involves hypnosis, you won't be able to change a paradigm that most people develop thru all their lives in a matter of weeks. When people is exposed to your campaigns, they need time to understand what you offer, create credibility on your brand or service, and then get ready to buy. Advertising is a game of numbers. For example, lets take a printed ad on a local newspaper. Usually, a potential prospect need to see the ad a minimum of 9 times to be able to associate your brand, get confident, and be ready to initiate contact. The problem is that the average prospect won't see your add every time you are published. The number is one out of three. What that means is that you need to publish your ad a minimum of 27 times (based on weekly publication) to be able to generate some results. So, if you got anxious after the 3rd or 4th week, and change your campaign, or jump to other chanel, you just lost your time, your money, and even worst, generate a bad feeling on those who saw your ad and now can't see it again. Probably they now think that you were just an occasional business.
5. Take yourself for granted. This is one of the most common mistakes i have seen on small business and professionals. Sure you have great ideas, and you have the ability to put together some campaigns, but you cant take yourself for granted. Not planning ahead for your absence is foolish and a recipe for disaster. You need to create systems. A system is an ordered list of steps that you need to accomplish something, with the instructions on where and how to do them. At the office we have lots of checklists. From the moment you call to set an appointment, we are running systems. It make it a lot easier to train other people, and to step aside of all the processes on your company. That will allow you to replicate the process, outsource and use your tine on getting new good ideas.
This mistakes can hold you on getting your marketing off the ground. Make sure you stay away from them.
In : Local Marketing