Avoid These Mistakes, Succeed at Marketing
I realize we’ve all heard these before, but certain things are worth repeating every now and again. So, please, bear with me as I present The Top Marketing Mistakes to Avoid:
1. Marketing to everyone. Do your research, find your target audience, and gear your marketing message to that audience. Don’t try to reach everyone.
2. Fractured brand unity. All of your marketing efforts should present a cohesive feel for your product, service, and company. The more unified your advertisements, website, etc, the better.
3. Using a single marketing medium. Your marketing efforts should employ a variety of media from television to the internet and everything in between. Ensure that your message reaches your entire target audience, market creatively through a cross-section of channels.
4. Ignoring current customers. Repeat purchasers make up 80% of customers in most businesses. However, most marketing campaigns focus on new customers instead of current ones. Use messages that reach both potential and repeat customers.
5. Sending mixed messages. Marketing messages that are too confusing, too subtle, too long, or too complicated can easily miss your target audience. Keep your campaigns simple.
6. Not asking for feedback. Testing your marketing messages is extremely important. Test your marketing ideas on focus groups and ask for feedback. Don’t launch new marketing campaigns blindly.
See, that wasn’t so bad was it? Not to mention, I can almost guarantee that, even though we can all recite them by heart, we’re all guilty of committing one of these sins a time or two in our professional lives. Like I said, some things are worth repeating on occassion.
Tags: advertising, branding, marketing, Small Business Tips