Extraordinary Marketing

A MAJOR MISTAKE TO AVOID

Not focusing your business and marketing on your customers needs.

This may seem obvious but take a look through your yellow pages.  Pick it up and just flick through and ask this question, are the ads telling you what benefits you get if you become a customer?  Or are the ads telling you about the companies, where they are, how wonderful they are, what they do, how great their quality is, how great their service is, and all about them?

95% of the ads are totally focused on the business and not on what the business can do for YOU, the prospect!

Pay attention to adverts in newspapers, on the television, and even on radio.  You’ll find the same thing happening in those places, consistently, every day.  This type of image “look at me” advertising is stupid “institutional” advertising that is usually recommended by most marketers or ad agencies.

Institutional advertising produces, at best, deferred results, but usually is a complete waste of your much needed resources both financially and in the time it takes to create. Most businesses do not have the budget of Coca Cola so why should you try and compete.

You know it’s institutional advertising when it tells you how great the company is, or how old and stable they are, or some other fluffy, fancy look at me style content and non-compelling buffoonery.

Selfishness in your marketing message is what kills it and makes it ineffectual. Whether it be brochures, flyers, sales letters, advertisements, web sites, newsletters or eblasts your marketing message should let your prospects know that you are concerned ONLY WITH WHAT THEY WANT!

Anything about you should always come last.  Your clients, customers, patrons, patients… whatever you choose to call them, should always come first.

All marketing materials you create should focus on what the prospects want and need.  Every sentence should show that you understand their wants and needs.

So always remember when creating a new marketing message WIIFT – What’s in it For Them!

Ah well this is the most important of all the tips from the free report so I suggest if you want to find out what it is you fill in your name and primary email in one of the boxes anywhere on this site and you will be able to see what the best tip for increasing your business is…..go on find out fill in the form and download the report.

Best of luck.

Mistake No 8 – Using Mass Market and Traditional Advertising.

Most businesses decide that they will market their products or services to everyone and anyone and as a result they may hit their ideal prospect by luck. This is a huge waste of money. If you don’t know who your target market really is then you will just be throwing away your marketing budget.

Also, try not to be brain washed by the sales executives who will be crawling all over you from directories, local and national papers and magazines and now people promising you a higher search engine ranking, remember their job is to get sales for their business and not yours. All these things can be useful if used correctly and in a complete strategy, Extraordinary Marketing can help you create this to make every element of your marketing work for you and gain a fantastic Return on Investment.

Mistake No 6 – Not using follow up.

You must and I repeat must follow up all prospective customers who are now on your Hot Prospect list (this is the list you have created from the people who have raised their hands in some way, filled in a form or requested information) – these people are ripe and should not be ignored. Of course a small percentage of people who give you their details may be not so hot but this is a SMALL part of this list and they will soon show up with your continued follow up and can be dropped from the list at a later date.

Most businesses waste 75% of their marketing budget with ineffective follow up systems.

You should follow up until you stop getting results and the main point of this is to continue to follow up until they either buy or ask you not to follow up any more. Use various media, letters, postcards, email and phone calls and if you have a newsletter (either email or postal) then add them to this list also.

Mistake No 4 – Lack of Preparation & image continuity

When you are starting to prepare your marketing and advertising you seriously need to think about the continuity of the whole experience for your prospects.

All aspects of any campaign should link together and actively sell your product or service in a simple and relaxed way. Each time a prospective customer sees one of your marketing messages they should know instantly that it is you and more importantly what it is you are selling or promoting.

Each piece you produce should move the prospect one step closer to doing business with you.

Do not confuse your prospects with conflicting colour schemes, logos, USPs etc. You need your visual input to be clean, professional and immediately recognisable as you and above all be powerful sales messages and should show your company image in a professional and relaxed atmosphere.