Marketing is an exciting part of doing business. Proud business leaders can’t wait to get the word out about what they have to offer. Be careful, though. Great marketing can kill a bad business. Watch out for these top 10 mistakes marketers make.
Top 10 Mistakes Marketers Make
- Making assumptions about customers. You may think you know what your customers want, but do you really? The best marketers follow a customer-focused marketing plan that revolves entirely around the needs they know their customers have. To get there, you need to do your research.
- Mischaracterizing the competition. Marketers are doing themselves a disservice if they think of their competition as just the businesses operating with a model similar to their own. All companies have both direct and indirect competition. Take restaurants, for example. A restaurant’s direct competition is other restaurants. Their indirect competition includes grocery stores, meal-delivery services, convenience stores, and much more.
- Leaving problems unresolved. Solving customers’ complaints is, in fact, a marketing issue. People are much more likely to tell others about a negative experience at a business than a positive one. If employees and managers are not trained to handle issues that come up with customers, marketing efforts will fail and marketers will be left scratching their heads.
- Going it alone. It takes more than one person to create a marketing plan, and it takes more than one person make that plan successful. Get your team involved in marketing from its inception to its implementation.
- Marketing too well. It’s better not to market at all than to fall short on promises you make in marketing campaigns. Before launching any promotion, make sure your employees are properly trained to handle the response.
- Failing to proofread. A major liquor company once released an ad with a beautiful image of its product along with a tagline that read, “Perfection has it’s price.” Your credibility can sometimes rest with a simple apostrophe, so be sure to always have a fresh pair of qualified eyes review your marketing before it goes live.
- Competing only on price. Customers are price-conscious, for sure, but what they really care about is value. They’re willing to pay more for quality, as long as they don’t feel like they’re getting ripped off. Your marketing needs to promote that sweet spot for customers.
- Playing it too safe. Great marketers know there is risk in any promotion. It may not resonate with customers, it may be tougher to implement than you thought, ROI might fall short, or it might just be bad timing. Like anything in business, you can’t be afraid to fail.
- Putting all your eggs in one basket. On the flip side of #8, it’s also a mistake to take too big of a risk with any marketing campaign. Testing new marketing ideas with small groups of customers is well worth the time.
- Not following up. You can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t know what they are. A marketing campaign doesn’t end when the campaign ends. Evaluate marketing results and find ways to enhance your message, lower your costs, and improve your process. Do this for successful campaigns and those that fall short of expectations.
