The 10 Most Expensive Marketing Mistakes that
Everyone Makes and How to Avoid Them
Learning Guide:
Marketing mistake #1: Not having a clearly defined niche or target market
Positive EX:
www.doubleyourdating.com On this site, the target market is “men who want to
understand why women want men.” It’s very clearly defined as to who the site is
targeting.
Poor EX:
A success coach who wants to help someone “live the life of their dreams.” This is not
specific enough. The more narrow your focus, the more likely you are to be successful.
If you’re happy with the results you’re getting by having a broad target market, than by
all means, keep it that way. Generally, it’s highly valuable to narrow it down.
Marketing mistake #2: Not fully understanding the needs and desires of target
market.
If you don’t clearly understand the hearts and minds of your prospects, you can’t
communicate with and resonate with them. If you want to get to know them conduct
surveys which can really work will over the phone.
Positive EX:
E-Harmony is a dating service which targets women. This is highly effective because
they are bringing balance as men tend to spend more time on dating websites than women
do.
Poor EX:
New Coke. In the 80’s Coke came out with a version of Coke that would taste more like
Pepsi. All the coke drinkers got so upset with the “new coke” that they went back to
Coke Classic and then eventually got rid of both concepts “new” or “classic”.
Marketing mistake #3: Having marketing materials that put more focus on you and
your company than on your prospects and customers.
This is one of the most common mistakes that most people make.
Successful EX:
www.stopyourdivorce.com This person makes loads of money from his e-book. This
website is written specifically to you, the person in that situation.
Poor EX:
This is a great company with a poor website that may change any time. However for now
it’s www.ptrbuilt.com. On this site they talk about themselves a lot. Some suggestions
for improvement are:
Instead of saying “our company…” say:
- “If you are looking for x, than you may really benefit from working with us…”
or
- “What do you need to help this place become the best building it could be?”
Always write things about your prospect instead of about yourself.
Marketing mistake #4: The product or service is marketed first and then created
second.
What’s better is to find out first if people are interested by the bullet points and results so
that you don’t waste time creating the program if it’s not going to interest anyone.
Create something that you know they’ll want instead of creating something that you hope
they’ll want.
EX:
Christian once created a day long workshop before he created his marketing materials.
Then it turned out that no business owners wanted to take the day off for a workshop and
it flopped.
The same thing is true with a book. Create the outline first and then fill in the details.
Marketing mistake #5: You don’t have a big enough difference in what you offer
from what everyone else offers.
Often people think that what will make them different is that they will have the best
customer service. The problem is that it’s not tangible or specific. No one can
understand it or get their hands around it.
Great EX: A paint company that uses plastic paint containers to pour paint easily rather
than metal containers that spill paint and cause a mess.
Marketing mistake #6: Not tracking your marketing results.
Trying a little of this and that, doing a random mixture of marketing activities
inconsistently, and riding the roller coaster ride of marketing. Not keeping track of
what’s working and what’s not.
Marketing mistake #7: Letting fears paralyze you from taking action
Remember it’s ok, everybody feels fear. Just work through it.
Marketing mistake #8: Following your head instead of your intuition.
Sometimes things look so great on paper. But if it doesn’t feel right when you’re
explaining it to someone or beginning to implement it, don’t do it. Don’t get so caught
up in anything that you’re not willing to listen to your intuition.
Poker is a good example for this. You can know all of the rules and still, if you don’t
follow your intuition, you can end up with poor results.
Marketing mistake #9: Not budgeting for failures.
Not everything you do is going to pay for itself or be a huge success. This works in two
ways:
1. Not budgeting for failures.
2. Hinging the success on one marketing campaign or putting all of your marketing eggs
in one basket.
Recommend this book: Jumpstart Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
Marketing mistake #10: Not getting the help you need.
What can happen is we can get caught up in our business activities and forget to ask
feedback from other people about what we’re doing. Remember to get help, have a
coach, or create the support you need to be successful.