21 Reasons You’ll Fail at Marketing
January 23, 2012
I don’t know what it is about Marketing, but everyone on earth seems to think they can do it. And yet I see so many people NOT doing it or wasting thousands of dollars and not getting results. I see business owners try the same things over and over, 
wasting more money, more time, and more energy. If I had 1/10th of what business owners waste on stuff that doesn’t work, I’d be the most successful marketing consultant on the planet. But I’m not because so many business owners would rather go it alone and fail over and over again rather than reach out and get professional help. I don’t get it.
I know there are those out there who will always try to do it themselves so in the spirit of not getting it, here are 21 ways to fail at marketing:
- Guess – Great marketing isn’t an accident. It takes research, educated decisions, testing, tracking and measuring. Guesswork will leave you customer-less and broke.
- Do what everyone else is doing- Every business is different and your marketing mix should be too. Following the crowd isn’t going to help you stand out from the competition!
- Listen to sales people Marketing is a long term strategy, not a special advertisement, publication, or website; but every sales rep you come in contact with will try to convince you otherwise. Marketing is a process, there is no magic pill and don’t let a slick sales person try to tell you there is.
- Don’t ask questions –Question EVERYTHING about your business and ask everyone you come into contact with as many questions as possible to learn, grow, and constantly improve.
- Do nothing – It’s simple, if you don’t Market your business, you will fail.
- Put all your eggs in one basket – Marketing is like investing, the more diversified your strategy, the better off you will be. Don’t invest all your time and resources in one medium or on one marketing tool – mix it up.
- Don’t track results – How the heck are you going to know what works and what doesn’t if you don’t track the results? If you’re not tracking you’re guessing, and we covered that in #1!
- Assume you have all the answers – Yes, I know: you know your business better than anyone. But do you know marketing? I mean do you REALLY know how and where to reach potential customers and how to convince them to buy from you?
- Don’t talk to your customers – No one knows your value – or faults – better than the people who actually buy from you. Talk to your customers – often. It’ll provide valuable insight and ideas.
- Don’t study your competition- If you don’t know how you’re different from your competition how are potential customers supposed to? Knowing your competition’s strengths and weaknesses will help you differentiate.
- Don’t set goals –Goals keep us on track; they give us direction. Without them you’re wandering aimlessly and most likely wasting a lot of time and money.
- Don’t build an email list – I don’t understand how anyone can market a business in today’s world without an email list! Email is the easiest and most inexpensive way to stay in touch with customers and prospects. If you aren’t building a list you’re missing out on huge opportunities.
- Don’t have an opt in form – Emailing current and past customers is a great start, but what about the people who visit your website, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn pages and then go away never to be heard from again? Wouldn’t’ it be nice to engage the serious window shoppers in some way? An opt-in form is the way to do it!
- Sell all the time. We’ve all met the slick schmoozy salesy types, right? And how long does it take you to high-tail it in the opposite direction? Don’t be one of those. An effective marketing strategy eliminates the need to sell all the time… really!
- Assume because you have a great product or service you don’t need a marketing strategy – Sure, some products and services might market themselves, but that’s rare. Real marketing success takes strategy, planning, and work.
- Assume that just because you have a good product or service you don’t need a referral system- Again, there are some products and services that people just love to talk about, but building a successful business solely on organic referrals and “buzz” is rare. Getting solid referrals, consistently takes solid planning and execution. .
- Assume anyone with a pulse is your client- Repeat after me: “NOT everyone is a potential client for me”. Now look in the mirror and repeat that every day! Find your niche – that segment of the population you are born to serve and you will uncover a gold mine!
- Don’t build relationships – I can’t stress enough how important this is. Hiding behind your computer screen, desk, or counter isn’t going to get you the level of success you want. You have to get out there – mingle, be helpful, connect people, and build relationships with the right people!
- Spend all your time networking in the wrong places –Not every networking group is right for you. Find the ones that will help you get where you want to go and avoid the ones that won’t.
- Ignore the internet – Facebook and Twitter may not be right for your business, but chances are your target market is going somewhere on line for information about your product or service. Your job is to find out where they’re going and be there!
- Don’t hire a professional- If you want to build an addition onto your home would you do it yourself or hire a professional? I mean, you know your home better than anyone, right? So why not do it yourself? Ridiculous, right? So then why would you try to “add on” – or grow – your business yourself? Hire a professional who has the right tools and knows the ins and outs of growing a business.
So what do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Want to share?? Please do! Leave your comments here.
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Don’t Say That!!! How to Improve Your Image by Keeping Your Mouth Closed!
July 10, 2011
One thing I realized during my 9-5 career is that the things you don’t say can oftentimes be way more powerful than the things you do say. I remember telling my boss, the VP of Sales, a story about a how another VP of Sales in a past job took a huge account that I had landed away from me and transferred it to a senior rep because he felt I couldn’t handle it. I told this story as a w
ay to prove that I was capable of bringing in big accounts. But as I told it, I realized that what I was really doing by telling the story was instilling doubt in his mind of my abilities to effectively manage a large account. If another person in his position had made that call, then maybe there was some validity to it.
I vividly remember sitting there after having spilled the beans, immediately regretting it; realizing that although I was trying to make myself look capable it really did quite the opposite… It was a valuable lesson and I learned to be a lot more mindful about what I say – and don’t say! And that is a skill that is definitely useful in developing marketing communications….
Now cut to yesterday…. I stole a couple of lazy hours on a Saturday afternoon to watch some mindless TV. And on comes a Nutella commercial. I rarely watch commercials these days, but as a marketer when I do, I pay attention. In this particular Nutella commercialI noticed how they positioned the product as a fun, easy, and healthy choice. I didn’t quite buy the “healthy” claim so I went to my laptop to look up their ingredients. Guess what??? No so healthy…! But it got me thinking again about Marketing and Advertising and clever big corporations are with their messaging – like politicians, they are great at focussing on the good and ignoring the “bad”. So I thought I’d point out what Nutella did in their commercials to help small business owners know what to say – and NOT say!
Here are some lines from their commercial that I thought were interesting uses of marketing messaging. I also included lessons that all small businesses can learn from them.
“Serve it on whole wheat toast or even whole wheat waffles.” - I love this line. Without saying the product is healthy, it leads you to believe it’s healthy simply by associating it with something that is healthy! Using this strategy, you can slap 20 tablespoons of sugar on whole wheat bread and voila! It’s healthy! Lesson: In your business, what can you associate your product or service with to make it more appealing to consumers?
“My ki
ds love it and I feel good about serving it.” - Translation: I don’t have to force my kids to eat healthy stuff they hate- yet, it’s healthy enough that I don’t have to feel guilty about feeding them junk. Lesson: What emotional affect does your product or service have on consumers and how can you make them feel good about using it?
“Nutella is made with Simple, Quality ingredients; like hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa” –How can you go wrong with nuts and skim milk and just a ‘hint’ of cocoa??? Sounds so nutritious and wholesome and good, doesn’t it? What they don’t say is that the first ingredient is sugar and the second is palm oil (which is proven to increase bad cholesterol). Lesson: How are you showcasing your best qualities (and down-playing your not-so-great qualities)?
“No artificial colors or preservatives” – What they don’t tell you is there are artificial flavors, but because they say “no artificial colors or preservatives” you forget to ask about artificial “anything” and assume it’s “artificial”/junk free! Lesson: As small business owners we sometimes feel the need to apologize for the little things we don’t do- or the services we don’t provide… but instead of apologizing for what you don’t offer, focus on what you DO – and more often than not, people won’t even notice what you don’t do!
I’m not writing this to pick on Nutella or to tell you shouldn’t smother it all over your whole wheat toast for breakfast. I wrote it to use a real world example of how an effective marketing strategy and careful marketing messaging can transform your product or service. Happy Marketing !
(And one more thing, can you really call it a Hazelnut spread if hazelnuts are only the THIRD ingredient? Wouldn’t it be a sugar spread?” – I guess it’s all about packaging!)
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!! Leave your comments here.
By the way, if you liked this post, I’d really appreciate your Retweet!!! Thank you.
3 Easy Tips to Find Time to Market Your Small Business
June 6, 2011
I wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago called “‘I don’t have a time’ is a lame excuse”… (for not Marketing your small business). I basically wrote that if we think something is important enough we’ll find the time to do it. And I know this because I do it all the time… I constantly say, “I don’t have time….” But what I realize is that really means either “I really don’t want to“ or “It just
isn’t a priority right now“, because trust me, If I REALLY want to do something, I’ll find the time. Am I right???
So with that blog post behind me, I started thinking: What I really need is not more time, but a way to manage the time I have more effectively. And I bet other small business owners could use the same thing! So, I asked my friend and colleague Sandy Stelter of Strategic Organizing Solutions (SOS) to give us some tips on how to manage our time better. Sandy is an expert in time management and small business productivity and a co author of the book “Get Organized Today”.
I hope you will apply these 3 easy steps in your own world so that you can find the time to market your business and become the small business you always dreamed of!
I don’t have time…
How many times do you find yourself saying these words…”I don’t have time to ….” You fill in the blank.
“I don’t have time to read.”
“I don’t have time to take a vacation.”
“I don’t have time to go to that networking event.”
“I don’t have time to write that article.”
Actually we do have the time if we step back and realize that we’re actually talking about managing our lives, not just our time. The lines are blurred between, home, work and leisure. It’s not clear where one ends and another begins.
So doing more important tasks with the time we have has become crucial. Once we set our goals, then planning and scheduling the tasks to meet those goals are the most important.
Here’s one thought that I find extremely helpful when I’m planning and scheduling my day.
Schedule your day around high-payoff activities. Whatever time is left over, schedule the low-priority activities then. I find it interesting that high-value activities do not proliferate as quickly as low-payoff items. I can find 101 little tiny low-payoff tasks to do instead of that one high-value activity.
For instance, rather than writing this article, I found myself reading email, balancing my checkbook (yes, I really do enjoy it), and updating Quickbooks. So here are three tips that help me schedule my day around the more important tasks and stay focused.
1. If the activity requires concentration, get away from the distractions in your office and on your desk. I listen to an instrumentals only radio station that I set up on Pandora.com (free version). No words, so I can’t sing along. No multitasking!
2. Establish deadlines for completing major portions of the big project. Chunk it into small units. I actually divided this task into two chunks – one was thinking and researching and the second was the actual writing.
3. Choose the time of day when you are most alert. There are two times a day that I’m alert and able to concentrate – mornings and then between 8:30pm-10pm. So I schedule many of my important tasks during those times. Notice when you are most alert and schedule your high payoff activities then. You’ll be amazed at the results!
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Sandy Stelter, Author and Owner of SOS – Strategic Organizing Solutions has worked with hundreds of clients to help them create and maintain a productive environment anywhere. SOS provides consultation and hands-on professional, customized, productivity coaching to individuals and businesses. Work toward your goals from an environment that supports you and who you want to be. For more information visit: http://www.sos.com
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!! Leave your comments here.
By the way, if you liked this post, I’d really appreciate your Retweet!!! Thank you.
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+Carolyn Higgins, President of Fortune Marketing Company
- Carolyn Higgins, President of Fortune Marketing Company specializes in helping small to medium sized businesses get the customers they need to sell more, increase profits and achieve all of their business and personal goals. We do this by implementing and managing marketing systems based on data and strategy - there is no guess work. For more information visit us at: FortuneMarketingCompany.com. We'd be glad to help!
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