12 Deadly Marketing Mistakes
and How to Avoid Them - Part 1

Mistake #1 – Lack of Marketing Mindset!

Confused what marketing and selling really is, most professionals shiver with disgust on a mere thought of having to promote and sell their service.

Regardless of how good you are at what you do if you can’t get enough visibility and not enough people are interested in your products and services, you’ll have a mediocre business at best and always struggle to stay afloat.

You are in business to solve other people’s problems profitably, and marketing helps you “get exposed” to more people and make them “hungry” for your solutions.

Make a commitment to become a life-long student of marketing and continually apply what you learn. Soon your business will soar.

Mistake #2 - Spraying and Praying!

Poor strategic planning, lack of clearly defined target market, niche and ideal client result in confusing marketing messages and costly “hit and miss” promotional tactics that fail to deliver the desired response.

Evaluate who your best clients are and invest time, effort, and money into only those strategies that help you best reach the largest number of prospects who can potentially become your ideal clients.

The more precise and targeted your promotions become, the more successful and profitable your business will be.

Mistake #3 – Confusing Marketing with Sales!

Before you can have a paid client you must have a prospect. And before you have a prospect you must have a lead!

Lack of effective, systematic lead generation strategies, and trying to jump from “stranger to client” keeps the business pipeline very dry for most service professionals!

Make lead generation one of the core activities of your business. The bigger you can build the database of qualified prospects the more relaxed you’ll be about the future of your business.

You’ll also become more effective in pursuing only those potential clients who are the best match for you – resulting in creating a more fulfilling business for you and better results for your clients.

Mistake #4 - Under- or Over-Spending!

Without knowing the value of each client there is no appropriate marketing budget. Promotional efforts are abandoned all together, or there is too much money wasted on tactics that eat up all potential profits.

Track each customer’s spending habits. Over a period of time you’ll be able to determine the value each customer represents to your business. This number is critical in your marketing efforts. Without it you never know how much you can really afford to invest in your new client acquisition strategies.

Mistake #5 - Failing to Keep In Touch!

A lack of consistent contact causes valuable client relationships to suffer, and results in increased attrition and permanently lost sales.

At times we all forget that people buy when they are ready not when we need to make a sale. Developing ways to keep in touch with prospects and clients generates six-figure windfalls for me every single year.

Often my clients reveal to me that they have been reading my tips for years before ever investing a dime in one of my products.

Start an ezine. Send out a monthly postcard. Write and publish an article a month. Start a blog. Host a monthly teleseminar. Get into podcasting. Whatever your method – find a way to frequently and regularly connect with current, potential, and past clients.

Mistake #6 – Refusing to Brand Yourself as an Expert!

A close relative to “spraying and praying.” Being a Jack (or Jane) of all trades confuses your potential clients and diminishes the perceived value of your services and products.

Analyze your strengths and the market you serve. Can you identify a specific service or product that is more popular than others you offer and that you are really good at and passionate about? Can you notice a trend that some clients tend to get better results with you than others?

If so, make a conscious effort to position yourself as an expert who offers only specific solutions to specific audience and in the upcoming months and years become better than anyone else at doing it.

Most of us prefer do deal with experts. So the time and effort you invest in positioning yourself as one will pay huge dividends; you’ll effectively differentiate yourself from others offering a similar service, and gain a competitive advantage that’s nearly impossible to beat!

To discover the remaining six deadly marketing mistakes to avoid click here
 

(c) 2006 Adam M. Urbanski 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

NOTE: Are you looking for fresh content for your ezine or web site? Feel free to reprint this article as long as it's kept intact and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to adam@themarketingmentors.com
 

Return To Index of All Articles