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In today's still sluggish economy companies are slashing costs to run on leaner budgets. Beware however, of slashing too much off your marketing budget. You need your marketing now more than ever. If your marketing isn't giving you a great enough return, the smart choice is to determine to get better at your marketing, not to cut out your marketing. An old proverb says that "a smart man learns from his own mistakes, but a truly wise man learns from the mistakes of others". Here are the top 5 marketing mistakes that so many other business owners are making and tips on what to do to avoid them.
Mistake #1: Does not have a well thought out marketing plan. I see so many clients not have a strategic plan when it comes to marketing their business. Naturally, they ended up taking a "sampling" approach where they simply picked up the idea of the week. -- making haphazard, reactive marketing decisions. Just like a scatterbrain lacks focus, scattergun marketing also lacks focus. Smart marketing is not trying out all of the marketing as if it were a buffet. Smart marketing is choosing the strategic marketing tactics that is best for you and works best in your industry.
Tip: Have a marketing strategy session day that culminates with a 12-month written marketing plan. Plan in for varying monthly cash flow and outline three versions: your must do, should do and could do marketing plans.
Mistake #2: Very Little or No Marketing. Often times when business owners get frustrating results from their marketing they react with not marketing at all. Others merely give it their pocket change effort. Marketing is the oxygen that feeds your business growth. That is not the expenditure to wipe out when the economy is strong or slow. Although sales will come from word of mouth and drive-by awareness, limiting your marketing plan to just that is like trying to fill a huge swimming pool from your kitchen faucet. With that approach it will be time to close the pool by the time there is finally enough water in it to swim.
Tip: Budget 10% of next year's annual revenue goal and set aside for this year's marketing budget.
Mistake #3: Not having a clear market niche. What a lot of small businesses do is try to be all things to all people. But, what ends up happening is that you don't get known to be anything to anyone. You blend in when you need to be standing out. The word niche translated from French means nest. So, what you want to do is carve out your nest away from all the other flock of birds. But, what do most people do in reaction to a down economy? Most people try to open their nets wider and try to appeal to more types of people. However, especially in a tough economy what you should do is the direct opposite. You need to carve out more clearly to appeal stronger to one type of client. Broad markets bleed resources. Your marketing has to work that much harder to be heard, read or noticed above the already crowded marketplace all clamoring for the customer's attention. Once you have established your market niche it becomes a lot easier to get to know them well. When you know your market very well then it becomes a lot easier to develop your marketing strategies to appeal to their needs, their egos and their cravings. You begin to understand that sales works best when you don't try to give them what you think they need; you give them what they want.
Tip: Identify your target clients in such a way where you could easily find them as a group. Fathers who live in North America are not a niche.
Mistake #4 Not having a clear USP -- unique selling proposition. You have to differentiate yourself. If not, customers will differentiate their choices by price. So, if you want to stop bleeding your marketing resources then you need to find that compelling difference and move your business towards that. Let's take Fed-Ex for example. There was a time when that company was really struggling. They were competing for market share with companies like UPS, Airborne, DSL and the local post office. So, what did they do when their backs were up against the wall barely surviving as a company? They decided to let go of promoting all of their other services and chose to stick with being known for just one thing: "envelopes delivered overnight." They didn't promote envelopes and boxes and fragile packages and freight, although yes, they do all that. They stood for one unique selling proposition that wasn't already taken in the marketplace. With a new USP Fed-Ex went from surviving to thriving. What is your differentiating idea and how will you get it in their mind? You have to have a well differentiated brand to survive in a very competitive world.
Tip: Determine what you can deliver that will position you as the first one who...
Mistake #5 Not having a deep enough understanding of your competition. You'll be hard pressed to come up with a truly unique selling proposition if you don't have a deep understanding of who your competitive companies are out there. And of course, if you don't have a clearly defined target market, you'll be hard pressed to determine who your competitors are. So, all of this goes hand in hand. Doing your homework to do a solid competitive analysis isn't just busywork. It impacts the effectiveness of the other building blocks in your marketing.
Tip: Research and chart out strengths and weaknesses of your top 5 competitors.
In a good economy the rising tide raises all boats. But, in a down economy business owners need to put more time and effort into getting better at marketing to get better results. These marketing mistakes bleed resources even in a good economy, but in a down economy they can potentially devastate your resources. My final tip is to make sure you implement these first 5 tips. Knowledge isn't power. It's what you do with that knowledge that gives power.
Yoon Cannon is a systemic business growth coach, consultant and speaker based in Philadelphia, Pa. She specializes in helping entrepreneurs grow Million Dollar companies through best practices in marketing and productivity.
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