Small Business Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Would you like to get better results from your marketing and really start taking your business to the next level? Sure you would. I hope you're all planning to make this year your best year ever.

One
of the things that I've found is that most small businesses can do much
better if they just start avoiding some common marketing blunders.

The
good news is that if you're willing to critically evaluate whether you
make each of these mistakes, you can find immediate room for
improvement.

Here are some marketing mistakes to look for and avoid this year and beyond:

1. Not clarifying your purpose and vision.

2. Not having a marketing and sales system.
You have a system for most of your major business functions - billing,
accounting, human resources, etc. The one function that usually goes
without a system is marketing and sales.

Without a marketing and
sales system you'll never grow your business to its full potential. A
marketing system will help you break your marketing down into a series
of connected small steps to generate more leads consistently and
convert them into clients.

3. Never really determining your customers' and prospects' needs. So many small business owners are stubbornly offering their clients and prospect what they want to do.

If
you never ask your clients what they value, want and need from a
business like yours then you're making a huge mistake. Use customer
surveys, focus groups, and stay up on industry news all you can.

4. Not clarifying and articulating your uniqueness throughout all your marketing. How do you stand out and make your message memorable in a crowded marketplace of "me too" alternatives to your business?

Most
small businesses never communicate their uniqueness. It's not that you
don't have a uniqueness that's significant for your clients, it's just
that most don't ever draw it out of their business and articulate it in
their marketing. Spend some time to determine how and why your business
is different and special. More importantly, clarify how and why that
difference benefits your clients.

5. Launching into marketing without preparing.
This might seem like a somewhat obvious summary point after the first
four mistakes I listed above. Have you spent the time to clarify and
define your target niche, your core marketing message, your uniqueness,
your packaging, your results and benefits, your risk reversal, your
irresistible offers, etc?

Too often I see people that get into
business and feel like they have to just start marketing without any
preparation. They throw together a brochure, get some business cards,
buy some yellow pages advertising, and then rush out to start
networking everywhere they can. These are all fine tools. But, without
any planning or preparation they often produce poor results.

6. Not using enough marketing lead generation tools.
If all you've done is buy a Yellow Pages ad and put up a web site,
you're practicing marketing invisibility. Many times I see small
business owners implement one idea and then wait to see what kind of
results it's going to produce before they try anything else.

Imagine
what you could do if you used 5, 10, 15, or more marketing lead
generation tools together to grow your business? What effect could this
have if each tool was producing some results for you? You sure wouldn't
be practicing marketing invisibility.

7. Not having any tools for introduction or follow-up from your business.
Unless you're selling a very small ticket product or service, chances
are good most prospects won't hire you when they first learn about you.
Most people still buy from those they know, like, and trust. Without
introduction and follow-up tools to show a little bit of who you are
and what you're capable of, establishing those levels of know, like,
and trust often never happens.

You need to develop some low-cost,
low-risk tools to introduce people to your business and use throughout
your follow-up cycles until they are ready to buy. Articles, special
reports, tip sheets, newsletters, tele-seminars, invitations to
networking events, and free trial periods are all examples of low-risk
and low-costs (sometimes even free) ways to accomplish this task.

8. Never giving clients and prospects reasons why.
You need to give your prospects and clients reasons why you're doing
the things you do. This fits right along with the previous point, but
also with other elements of your marketing such as why you're running a
special promotion or why you're offering special pricing, etc.

When
you offer reasons your prospects and clients will appreciate what
you're doing at a higher level. They'll be more likely to believe in
you and trust you. Above all, they'll be much more likely to take
action.

9. Not creating marketing and advertising that is direct-response-oriented.
So many small business owners are creating marketing or advertising
campaigns to "get their name out there." But, the problem is there's no
call to action to generate immediate response.

You need to create
marketing and advertising that gets people to act as soon as they see
it. Simply listing the name of your company, a few bullets on services
you provide and a phone number to call won't get it done.

10. Not testing and tracking.
Once you put your marketing out there, how do you know if it's doing
the job of attracting prospects and clients? How do you know if you
could be getting 20, 30, or 70% greater results? Too many small
businesses simply don't test and track their efforts.

Testing and
tracking may not be as hard as you think. For example, when sending a
direct sales letter you could split your list in half and test a
different headline, offer, or price with each half of the list. You
could send the same letter to two different lists to see which list is
more responsive. Tracking could be as easy as putting a code on each
and asking the prospect for the code whenever an inquiry comes in.

11. Not sticking with marketing tools that are still working.
This is often a direct result of mistake number 10, but also happens
because people think they need to keep things fresh. Sometimes business
owners think something has been running for too long or they're simply
tired of the same old thing.

If something is working, then you
need to stay with it. The key here is to be always tracking your
results. Chances are good you'll get tired of a certain marketing
activity long before it stops working for you. Resist the temptation to
change something up just because you're bored with it.

12. Stop marketing once you get the client.
Too many small business owners focus all of their marketing energy on
acquiring a new client. This is a big mistake even though most say they
recognize it takes seven to eight times as much to get a new client as
it does to sell to an existing client.

Two things you don't want
to hear from a client are ... "I didn't know you guys did that..." and
"I wish we would of thought of you when we just bought that last week."
Marketing shouldn't stop once you get the client.

Put clients and
prospects on your stay-in-touch marketing list. Keep them informed and
continue to share information of value with them. Share success
stories. Ask them for feedback. Ask them how else you can help them.
Ask them who else they know that you can help.

13. No plan or system for generating referrals.
Almost every small business owner I meet tells me most of their
business comes from referrals or word-of-mouth. But, when I ask them
what they're doing to guarantee a consistent flow of referral business,
they just don't have an answer.

It feels great when a happy
client tells someone else about you and that new prospect becomes a
client. But, if you're just passively sitting around waiting for others
to refer you, then you're not maximizing your growth potential. You
need a systematic approach to generate a constant flow of referrals.
Take a look at John Jantsch's Referral Flood.

I'm sure there are more small business marketing mistakes, but these are costing small business owners plenty.
Do your best to avoid each of these mistakes. With some commitment and
effort, you can't help but end up with more effective marketing.

By: Kevin P Dervin

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