The Ten Biggest Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

By Peter Koeppel

Have you noticed a slump in your sales? Are you having trouble establishing your new business in the marketplace? Or maybe you're established, but you just can't seem to get the word out about your new product. Your marketing may be to blame.

Marketing challenges can sabotage any size business. New businesses may not know how to market themselves properly. And in today's competitive business world, many small and mid-sized companies may lose sight of the marketing practices that made them successful in the first place. Even large, established companies can let their good marketing practices slide.

What can you do if you suspect your marketing efforts are less than satisfactory? Start by avoiding the following ten biggest marketing mistakes:

Mistake #1: Not Developing a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a critical part of every successful business. It helps you to design your product and service to fill a market niche, identify your target audience and then identify what you need to do to get your target audience to buy your product or service. The plan will help you design the objectives and tactics to further develop your marketing efforts in the future.

Mistake #2: Not Planning a Marketing Budget

To be successful, you need to spend money to publicize, market and advertise your business. As a general rule of thumb, you may spend at least ten percent of your revenue on marketing efforts. Essentially, these costs keep your company going and your products selling. No matter what size your company, you need to have a marketing budget.

Mistake #3: Not Targeting a Specific Target Audience

Understand that your market doesn't include everyone. No matter what product you have, not everyone is going to want to buy it. So decide on your target demographic and use appropriate media outlets to reach that audience. For example, if you have a diet product, you may target women ages twenty-five to fifty-four, who are ten pounds or more overweight. Then you need to advertise in women's magazines or during women-oriented television and radio programs. Trying to appeal to everyone won't work.

Mistake #4: Not Developing a Clear and Consistent Marketing Message

You want your target audience to know what you do or sell no matter where they see your name; you want to be recognizable. All your marketing materials, advertisements and promotions must convey a consistent look and message. This consistency throughout all media helps you achieve more from your marketing budget because the message is reinforced throughout all the media you advertise in.

Mistake #5: Believing Your Product Will Sell Itself

Many companies make the mistake of thinking that their product is so great and so different that they don't need to market it at all. However, potential customers won't know how great your product is or even that it exists, if you don't tell them. Word of mouth and referrals can only take you so far. You need to advertise and market to make sales.

Mistake #6: Not Clearly Defining the Product's Benefits

Today's marketplace is constantly changing and highly competitive. For example, if you need laundry detergent, you have a whole aisle of different brands from which to choose. So how do you make your decision? Something has to get your attention to make you choose one brand over another. Defining the unique selling proposition for your product will help your target audience differentiate it from your competitors. Work this uniqueness into your marketing plan and strategy to reach your product's specific audience.

Mistake #7: Not Diversifying Your Media Mix

At one time, you could reach 80 percent of the U.S. population simply by advertising on the three major television networks. But today's viewers can choose from hundreds of broadcast, cable and satellite channels, in addition to print, radio, satellite radio and the Internet. Media today is very fragmented, so you need to reach your audience via multiple outlets.

Mistake #8: Not Understanding the Lifetime Value of a Customer

If you can earn a customer and keep him or her for life, the value of that customer multiplies. For example, imagine you sell cars. If you have a customer who spends $10,000 a year to drive one of your cars, then over the lifetime of the relationship that customer will have given you $200,000. So what is it worth to earn that customer's business? If you spend ten percent, or $20,000, to get the customer's business, you'll earn a ten to one return on your investment.

Mistake #9: Not Having a Back-End Revenue Program

A back-end revenue program creates additional streams of income for your business. For example, if you sell someone a cosmetic product on television, a back-end revenue would be to sign them up for a continuity program where you send them more of the product on a regular schedule and charge their credit card automatically. This type of program allows you to bring in additional revenue and maintain your customer relationships.

Mistake #10: Not Up-selling the Customer

Up-selling means taking advantage of the sales opportunity and incremental revenue by adding additional or related products to a customer's purchase. For example, adding fries to an order at a fast food restaurant, or selling additional features, such as a sunroof on a car sale.

In Conclusion

Marketing is critical to the success of every business. Unfortunately, many businesses discount the effect it can have, and they forego their marketing efforts for other activities. Or they make one or more of the ten top marketing mistakes, and their efforts become ineffective. If you take steps to avoid these common missteps, you can market your business successfully and increase your bottom line.

Learn more about effective marketing strategies at these AMA seminars:

• Managing Your Marketing Communications Mix: An Integrated Strategy
• Fundamentals of Marketing: Your Action Plan for Success
• AMA's Advanced Course in Strategic Marketing
• Marketing for Service-driven Organizations

AMA On-site: Every one of AMA's 170+ public seminars can be delivered on-site. This flexible, money-saving option allows you to train ten or more people, when and where you choose, at a low cost per participant.

Author Bio: Peter Koeppel is founder and president of Koeppel Direct, a provider of direct response television media buying, marketing, campaign management and creative strategies. For more information, visit: www.koeppeldirect.com or call: 972-732-6110.