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Eight Crimes of Marketing
We all make mistakes in
business and some are more costly than others.
Here are just eight of the
marketing mistakes businesses make every day.
Go through your marketing plan carefully and see if any of these errors
apply to you. It may not be too late to make changes.
Crime no. 1 - Cutting back on marketing expenditures when revenues
drop
Marketing expenses are always the easiest to cut back in a hurry.
However, reduced levels of advertising and promotions inevitably mean
further reductions to income levels, so before cutting back in a hurry
think about the consequences.
When revenues drop it should stimulate any business owner to make a
careful examination of all expenditures, including marketing, but don’t
allow it to trigger off a complete halt in marketing spending. That’s a
guarantee that things will only get worse.
Crime no. 2 - Failing to do ongoing analysis of marketing results
If you’re spending money on marketing but don’t know which elements are
working and which aren’t you’re probably wasting both money and
opportunities.
Research, even on a modest scale, can tell you where your dollars work
hardest and where they just aren’t working. Use this information to
redirect your marketing budget so that you’re confident adequate support
is being given to profit-generating sectors and funds aren’t being
wasted elsewhere.
Crime no. 3 - Having all your eggs in one basket
It’s called the ‘marketing mix’ for good reason. All marketing is best
done with a mixture of components. If all your marketing funds go into
just one channel – say sponsoring local sports teams, you’re missing out
on returns you’d get from other channels.
Try for a balanced effort that doesn’t place too great a percentage of
your marketing funds into just one area. Leave some of your marketing
budget as a reserve for opportunities that arise during the year so
you’re able to capitalize on them without overextending.
Crime no. 4 - Being a D-I-Y marketing expert
Unless you’re incredibly gifted and have heaps of time to do everything
you should use the services of marketing professionals to prepare your
advertisements and other corporate material.
The same goes for your marketing strategy. Things change all the time in
marketing and having a professional take a look at what you’re doing
will give you a new and probably very useful perspective.
Crime no. 5 - Going on ‘gut feel’
You might think your marketing campaign is the best in the world. You
might be convinced your products, pricing and promotion are all perfect
and couldn’t be bettered. And, you might be right, but how do you really
know?
Basing your marketing on research, having professional assistance in
creating your campaign, and monitoring results with ways to measure
outcomes are the only way you can be sure you have a good chance of
getting it all right. ‘Gut feel’ is no substitute for careful planning
and evaluation.
Crime no. 6 - Thinking you’ve had enough exposure
It’s easy for business owners to think their marketing communications
have had enough exposure and decide to end a campaign, even a successful
one.
Just be aware that the rest of the world doesn’t see as much of your
marketing activities as you do, and it’s wise to keep using the same
marketing tools until your research shows that response has dropped
significantly
Crime no. 7 - Doing what the competition’s doing
It’s smart to keep an eye on what your competitors are up to, but it can
be fatal to see them succeed in something and blindly follow suit with
your own firm.
For example, if a competitor decides to specialize in a certain area and
it seems they’re doing well out of it you might want to redirect some of
your own resources into the same field. Or perhaps they decide to cut
their hourly rates for new clients and you feel you should do the same.
The risks are simply too great.
People aren’t after a ‘me-too’ source of professional work. They want to
enjoy developed expertise delivered with outstanding service. They want
value – not cheaper rates.
Crime no. 8 - Chasing new business at the expense of your client base
Your current and former clients represent your greatest source of income
relative to expenditures. It takes five times as much effort to acquire
a new client than it does to retain and existing one.
Spend some time developing a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
procedure for your firm and always give existing clients priority. After
all, if you went to a potential supplier and were told: “Sure, I can get
it for you today. My other customers will just have to wait”, would you
be impressed?
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