10 Deadly Marketing Mistakes Business Owners Make

1. Advertising to the wrong market. Make sure the program you’re selling is something that your market wants to buy and can afford to buy. You may have the best safety devices for tow trucks and fork lifts on the planet but trying to sell them to a high school isn’t going to work.

 2. Advertising in the wrong media. Where you place your ad or the mailing list you choose has much more bearing on your success than the actual marketing piece you use.

 3. Failing to emphasize your unique selling proposition (USP) in all your marketing. The purpose of your marketing is to let people know why they should hire you instead of someone else. You need to educate your prospects as to why you’re unique and how this uniqueness benefits them.

 4. Being dishonest. Honesty is your most potent marketing strategy. Don’t claim to be able to deliver results that you can’t deliver. Don’t say that your product can do something that it can’t. Don’t raise your prices because you discover the person hiring you has more money to spend.

 5. Talking about features instead of benefits. No one cares what you or your product does unless you show them how it benefits them. Remember: A feature is what you do, a benefit is what that feature means to your client.

 6. Not talking about features. People do want to know what you or your product does. Create a vivid picture of your service or product in the minds of your prospects.

 7. Failing to stay in touch with your clients. Huge error. It is far easier to sell your current clients a new product than it is to get a new client. You should be mailing your current clients at least six times a year. This alone will double your income. Not only from repeat sales but from the referrals as well.

 8. Not having a referral system in place. Hoping and praying for referrals isn’t going to do it. Your clients need to know they are expected to refer. Then recognize and reward them when they do.

 9. Changing your marketing methods when what you’re currently doing is working. We all grow tired of our sales letters, lead generation ads, brochures, and other marketing materials and want to change them. You may be bored but if what you’re using still works don’t change it! Your prospects don’t see your marketing materials as much as you do. Change what you’re doing only when it stops working OR when you test something and discover it works better.

 10. Not using testimonials. People are very skeptical and need lots of proof. Someone can doubt one or two testimonials but send them a huge box of testimonial letters and even the most skeptical person has to believe.

 Take a look at your marketing and see which of these “sins” you are committing and then make the necessary changes.