Marketing Mistakes Will Be Made

You, small business owner, will make thousands of decisions this year. Some will be ordinary: Where should I go for lunch? While others have a major impact: Is it time to hire more sales staff?

Some of the most important decisions you will make in 2015 involve marketing.

Let’s face it, some of these decisions will be wrong. It’s said that learning from mistakes is essential to success. What often is not added is that if you can learn from the mistakes of others, you can save yourself a lot of time, money, and frustration.

The marketing mistake I see repeated by so many business owners is jumping from one marketing tactic to another with no clear understanding of why the new “bright shiny thingy” will be better than the last. The thought (or lack of) seems to be “it’s new, and everyone else seems to be doing it. I should too”. That is a big mistake. Without understanding why you should spend your marketing dollars doing something, your expectations of the results, and how you’ll measure you are likely to be disappointed. When that happens, guess what? You’ll jump to the next “bright shiny thingy”. I see the cycle repeated over and over, much to the delight of the companies selling this month’s “bright shiny thingy”.

I asked a few members of the Duct Tape Marketing Consultants Network to give me their thoughts on the marketing mistakes business owners will make this year. Hopefully seeing the mistakes that will be made by others will help you not do the same.

Here are 10 mistakes that will be made in 2015:

1. Not Planning

Planning is over-rated. Isn’t half the fun just ‘jumping in’ and ‘seeing what happens, next’? Seriously, we're all FPO's. For some, it means Fire-Putter-Outer. They measure their success by how busy they are. For others, it means Fire-Prevention Officer. They measure their success by how productive they are. The latter plan, the former do not. Which group do YOU want to be in?

- Bill Doerr, Get New Clients Now, www.getnewclientsnow.com

2. Leaving Digital Space Unclaimed

Business owners will continue to ignore the easiest things to do to get noticed by searchers. Claim your space on Google My Business. Make sure your Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) are on your home page. Claim your listings on the major directories and review sites (Moz Local and Yext). These simple steps will help you get noticed and take advantage of one of your biggest strengths – being local.

- Mark Z. Fortune, Fortune Marketing, www.fortunemarketinginc.com

3. Stressing Over Your Blog

Too many business owners who recognize the need to take content marketing seriously, get bogged down because thinking they have to be responsible for producing it. What they need to understand is there are a host of tools and services that make content marketing something any business owner can do well, without the need to become full-time bloggers.

- Andy Catsimanes, Day By Day Marketing, www.daybydaymarketing.com

4. Failing to Contact Leads

In 2015, business owners will continue to spend money to generate leads only to let them languish with little or no contact, leaving money on the table every day. Did you know that 70% of marketing leads never convert to sales? Not to mention that only 12% of salespeople make more than three contact attempts, even though 80% of sales are made on the 5th-12th contact!

- Judy Habel, CryWolf Marketing, www.crywolfmarketing.com/

5. Ignoring The Voice Of Your Prospects

Small business owners continue to use Twitter to talk about their business and then wonder why they’re not gaining new customers. Everyone loves to feel heard, so if you use the advanced search function of Twitter you just might hear what your prospects are talking about. Write down five trigger statements people might use on Twitter that would identify them as prospects. Then do a Twitter search for each of these statements and give thoughtful responses that show you care.

- Jean Hanson, Marketing Systems By Design, www.marketingsystemsbydesign.com/

6. Not Having A Cohesive Website Strategy

The marketing mistake we saw most in 2014, and surely to repeat in 2015, is a lack of a cohesive website strategy. Most small business owners treat their websites as a digital brochure or just another business expense. For many of the most successful small businesses today, their websites are not just a part of a marketing presence – they are the central hub for all of their marketing activities. From print, radio, and television to Internet marketing and SEO, and even word of mouth referrals, in today’s world all roads lead back to your site. Most small businesses do not do enough to get new leads to their websites nor make the most out of converting existing traffic. Website strategy and content marketing will continue to be the biggest challenge and opportunity for many small businesses this year.

- Phil Singleton, The KC Marketing Agency, www.kcmarketingagency.com/

7. Thinking That Lowering Prices Will Fix Your Sales Problem

Don't be too quick to cut your prices and try to appeal to a broader market when faced with a challenge, like losing a major client or having a new competitor enter the market. You'll turn yourself into a commodity, and there's always someone willing to do it or sell it for cheaper. Instead, first try focusing your marketing on a solving a specific problem for a narrower target customer set. It can be scary to stick to your guns in pricing, and there certainly are times when a price cut is necessary, but you don't need to jump to that as your first response.

- Scott Stern, Red Stripe Strategy, www.redstripestrategy.com/

8. Being Unrealistic About Social Media

Expecting social media to be the "do all - catch all" that leads to successful revenue generation is a folly that will continue to minimize business owner's marketing campaigns in 2015. Oh, SM can create interest, even desire, but doesn't necessarily synch the sale. Each marketing tactic must lead to a call to action. Every reader of your content is interested in something you can do for him or her, so ask them to take the next step that just might be to buy something from you.

- Dave DeVelder, DevCom, www.salesmarketingtampa.com/

9. Thinking Tactics Are Strategies

Doing whatever they were doing before and thinking its a marketing plan. A plan is only as effective as it ability to be executed in a strategic, sustained and consistent manner with measurable results.

- Shirley Tan, Yes Again Marketing, www.yesagainmarketing.com/

10. Not Understanding How The Prospects Buys

With the Internet, social networks, review sites, and mobile devices, the buyer journey has changed dramatically over the last few years for both consumers and business buyers. One of the biggest mistakes I see today is businesses that don’t think about how their prospects buy today and then taking that information and mapping it to an updated marketing plan.

- Kelly Weppler, WH & Associates, www.whandassociates.com/

Learning from mistakes, especially those of others, can save you a lot of time and money. When it comes to marketing decisions, avoiding mistakes can mean the difference between wasting your marketing budget or getting the results you expect.

Did you make marketing mistakes in 2014?

Want to NOT make those same marketing mistakes this year? Spend time concentrating on marketing strategy first – before making the decision of which marketing tactic you’ll use. You will save yourself time, money, and lots of frustration.

Not sure where to start? Give me an email or call. I’ll be happy to help you reduce your marketing mistakes and achieve meaningful results from your marketing efforts in 2015.

If you hit the “Like” button, please take a minute to connect with me too. I’m sure you will find we have a lot in common.

David C. Smith is a Managing Partner at Valens Point - a company focused on helping software and IT companies stop wasting their money on marketing. We help your business grow by focusing on getting new customers, retaining the ones you have, and generating more revenue.

Find more from David at https://valenspoint.com/