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12 Common Marketing Mistakes - (and how to avoid them)

05-Feb-2009

1. Not clearly identifying your ideal target market customer and researching their needs first.  (As Seth Godin says in his book Purple Cow, “A product for everybody is a product for nobody”)
    
2. Letting “the creative people” design marketing initiatives that appeal to their personal tastes - rather than the tastes of your target market customer.  (Make sure you “prove” all marketing initiatives by testing and measuring response rates on a small subset of your target market customers first)
    
3. Using staff committees to develop your marketing communications.  (Use a marketing professional who studies the research and knows what marketing strategies will give you the highest likelihood of success)
    
4. No compelling headline in your advertisements.  (5 times as many people read the headline only – compared to those who read the complete message) 
    
5. No blunt overt benefit associated with your headline.  (Headlines that promise an overt benefit are read by 4 times more people than those that don’t)
    
6. Squeezing as many features and benefits into marketing messages as possible.  (More than 2 benefits can lower your chances of success)
    
7. Assuming that business-to-business marketing needs to be factual and informative, rather than emotional.  (Corporate buyers overwhelmingly rely on emotional reasons over rational ones in their purchase choice).
    
8. Using jargon, acronyms, abbreviations, and complex language.  (Check to see if a 10 year old can understand your marketing message – if not go back to the drawing board)
    
9. Using flowery language that sounds good but that means nothing.  (Simple, persuasive copy is good.  Fluff and filler are bad.)
    
10. Unsubstantiated hype and empty claims.  (The vast majority of people do not believe advertizing any more – so you need to give them real reasons to believe you - e.g. facts / data / awards / demonstrations / testimonials). 
     
11. Focusing on the total number of people your marketing will “reach”.  (Better to communicate by the most direct means possible with your target market customers and focus on “frequency” of contact).
     
12. A new marketing manager wants to justify their existence and totally revamps the marketing message.  (As boring as it sounds, consistency over time is crucial to marketing success).

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