The economy is reeling, sales are down, and all budgets are getting slashed. One of those budgets getting slashed is probably Marketing, as well. This can be a costly mistake in the long run! Owners of companies and financial executives are looking for measurable results for any and all projects and initiatives. So how does one ensure that your marketing plan and initiatives do not get axed, or better yet, get approved in today's challenging economic climate? Firstly, avoid the ten most common marketing mistakes below: Mistake # 1: You Don't Have a Marketing Plan. A good marketing plan is developed with a series of planned activities, over a specific period of time, with clearly articulated objectives, a budget, and detailed expectations of financial returns in the form of increased sales, improved market share, or increased brand recognition or other measurable variable. If you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Mistake # 2: You Don't Know Your Competition. This is a costly mistake. Be realistic and figure out who your competition is. If you do not know your competition, you will not know how to position your widget, product, business solution or service. If you do not know how to position your product against the competition, you will waste your marketing and business development money. You need to understand the unique value proposition your product/service offers to your targeted audience. Mistake # 3: You Don't Target Your Specific Audience. You may have the best widgets ever developed. However, some segments of the market are more likely to buy it than others. Don't "try to boil the ocean" and be everything to everyone all the time. It never works! Instead determine which specific market segment(s) would benefit from your product the most. Why would they buy the product at all, why would they buy it now, and why should they buy it from your company? If you don't have the answers to these questions, you are not ready. Mistake # 4: You Don't Have a Clear, Consistent & Compelling Message. If you do not understand what is important to your target audience you will not be able to create a clear message with a compelling value proposition. Without the compelling value proposition, your customers will look elsewhere before they make their buying decision. You end up wasting your scarce marketing resources and money. Don't make this mistake. Don't forget that your biggest competition is when your customer chooses to make no decision at all. Get the messaging right! Communicate the true "benefits" the targeted customer will experience with your product or service, not the features it embodies. Mistake # 5: Not Understanding the Difference Between Advertising and Marketing. Advertising is only a small part of your marketing plan. Far too often small businesses mistake one for the other. Spend the time required to develop a marketing plan and a budget which will serve as a roadmap to promote your business. Advertising is expensive and often ineffective unless part of a well thought out marketing plan which includes various, measurable ways to promote and increase your sales. Create the plan, and then work the plan. This will provide you with the tools to measure and ensure that a particular kind of advertising is best for your business. Mistake # 6: Not Measuring The Effectiveness of Your Marketing Efforts. Clearly define the objectives and desired business outcomes of each step in your marketing plan. Be realistic and don't expect too much too soon! Then measure the effectiveness of each step in your marketing plan against the realistic objectives you have set. It is critical that you create metrics to measure the success of your marketing efforts for each step in your marketing plan. Without the metrics you will constantly be second guessing your decisions and the overall effectiveness of the plan. You can potentially miss a critically important opportunity to tweak the marketing plan to address unexpected changes in the market place. Mistake # 7: Changing Marketing Strategies Too Often. If you spent the time to correctly craft your marketing plan, and you have proper, meaningful metrics in place to measure the success of each step in the plan, you rarely need to change the entire marketing strategy. Having to change your entire marketing strategy is usually a sign of either a poorly crafted marketing plan, or no plan at all. This is akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sometimes you may experience significant changes in the market place requiring you to revisit your marketing plan. With a solid marketing plan, and proper metrics in place measuring each step in the plan will provide you with the insight to more effectively tweak the parts of your marketing plan to address the unexpected changes in the market place. Mistake # 8: Forgetting Your Existing Customers Far too many businesses focus primarily on new customer acquisition to increase their sales. By not understanding the true value of your existing customers and providing outstanding service in a world accustomed to poor service you end up damaging the very foundation upon which you have built your business. You can choose to become the leader in customer experience management. Start managing the "moments of truth" by proactively engaging your existing customers across all channels and in specific marketing communications. The value you continue to provide to your existing customers is a combination of the product/service, price and the overall experience. Make certain your existing customers feel appreciated and have an experience they want to repeat. Mistake # 9: Not Using Testimonials in Every Marketing Communication. Your targeted prospect receiving your marketing materials for the first time may have little or no knowledge of your company. Therefore, you probably have little or no credibility. You may actually be totally unknown to your prospect. Overcoming this obstacle by sharing testimonials of how your existing customers with similar problems truly benefitted from your product or service is the most effective way of gaining your prospect's confidence. Remember to use customer testimonials in every marketing communication. Not using them will slow your sales to new prospects! Mistake # 10: "Not Having The Marketing & Sales Departments Collaborate on the Plan". Invariably, marketing executives say that the sales department is messing up the sales and are not in sync with the marketing message. Conversely, the sales department often blames the marketing department for not generating any leads, poor marketing material and poorly planned and non-existent communication for marketing campaigns. Who is right? Both are. If the marketing and sales departments are not collaboratively planning marketing initiatives, both departments will lose. At the end of the day the objective of any marketing plan is to increase sales. Going through the steps outlined above will take time and effort. Doing it right and avoiding the costly marketing mistakes above will increase your response rates and ultimately your sales. It is up to you to decide if the time invested is worth the guaranteed financial returns. Personally, I think it is.
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The economy is reeling, sales are down, and all budgets are getting slashed. One of those budgets getting slashed is probably Marketing, as well. This can be a costly mistake in the long run! Owners of companies and financial executives are looking for measurable results for any and all projects and initiatives. So how does one ensure that your marketing plan and initiatives do not get axed, or better yet, get approved in today's challenging economic climate? Firstly, avoid the ten most common ...
Marketing Tweaker http://www.marketingTweaker.com Dennis Nuutinen
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