7 Deadly Sins of Marketing
7 Deadly Sins of Marketing
by Dale Bohman
With all of the competition out there, pushing, shoving and competing for every consumer dollar, a well executed marketing strategy can make all the difference, or a poor strategy can help pound nails in your coffin. The key to remember is that there is not a "silver bullet" for success, but there ARE a lot of things that you can throw in the gears to slow things down or even stop them. So with that I give you the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing (according to Dale).
The first is not paying attention to your BRANDING. Branding is everything that makes up the consumers perception and experiences with you. It is your brochure and the consistency of your marketing materials, your customer service, how fast you turn around estimates, how good you do on the job, etc. You should see each item the customer sees and experiences as part of the overall picture, and ignoring any one part can have disastrous impact, or it can all work together to give you an edge over your competition.
The second is not KNOWING YOUR CUSTOMER. How can you target who your good customers are if you don't know their age, habits, income range and other demographics. What is important to your customer, and is it different for each customer. Why would they want your product or service? What will it do for them that solves their problem. If you really know your customer you can use that information to cut through the 3000+ marketing messages that they receive each day.
The Third Sin of Marketing is NOT TRACKING YOUR RESULTS. If you cannot be sure that a marketing vehicle is making you money, WHY would you spend money on it. There are many tools to help you today, from tracking website hits, to putting coupons or special offers on mailing pieces to even using special phone numbers for specific campaigns. If you measure the effectiveness you will learn what works and be able to improve your marketing as you go.
The fourth sin is NO CALL TO ACTION in a campaign. With all the messages in the market place, just going for name recognition is a waste of money. You need to focus on a needed benefit, it may be a discount, it may be a problem you solve, it may even just be the opportunity to get somthing first (Apple does it brilliantly, every time they release a new product they have lists of their "I've got to have the latest" geeks that will come buy their stuff the day it comes out!)
The Fifth sin is MAKING IT HARD TO RESPOND. What is the benefit if you have a great offer and then put them into 7 layers of your phone system to do battle with? Do you have an assortment of contact options? Phone, e-mail, location, etc.? We can even now put a personalized URL on a mail piece that when the customer goes to the site, welcomes them by name and already has any forms filled out with the customers information, they just have to select their options!
The sixth sin is LACK OF CONSISTENCY. Sending out 5000 postcard 1 time is not going to make an impact. Studies show that the typical consumer needs 7 touches before they will begin to recognize your company and respond. The other key is that people don't really care about what you do until the moment they need you. Consistent marketing will build Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA). You want to be the FIRST that comes to mind when they need you. Plan your marketing a year at a time and work your plan to communicate on a regular basis with your customers.
The seventh DEADLY sin of marketing is DOING NOTHING! When the economy is down, business is slow, it is NOT the time to stick your head in the sand and cry about how bad things are. Even if all you can afford to do is go visit customers, or walk around and hand out flyers or visit with people...or better yet - ask your satisfied customers for referrals. You will build more business than doing nothing. Marketing is getting people to want to do business with you, find a way!