The
12 biggest marketing mistakes small business owners make ... and how to avoid
them!
“Hi I'm
Keith Banfield. As and International professional Speaker, business coach and
seminar leader have been fortunate enough to speak to tens of
thousands of business owners. I quickly noticed patterns developing and small
business owners making the same marketing mistakes over and over
again. So let me share with you some of them here, so that
you can learn from other people's mistakes rather than having to make your
own.” The 12 biggest marketing mistakes small business owners make ...and how
to avoid them!
Mistake
No.1
Not
knowing who your customers really are
Whatever
business you are running, it is essential to know who your customers are.
Amazingly, one of the biggest mistakes made by small business owners is to not
know who their customers specifically are. For example, if you were
to ask the question, "who would you like as a customer?" Sadly, the
all too common response is, "well anyone will do". So what do your
customers look like?
How old
are they? What business are they in? Where are they geographically? Are they
male or female? In other words, could you specifically define who you are
trying to attract as a potential customer?
Mistake
No.2
Not allocating
any money for marketing
Think of
your business like a brand new shiny car sitting out there on your driveway.
Doesn't it look great? So where would you like to go in your car? Certainly, if
you want it to go forward, you'll need to put some petrol or diesel into it.
Indeed, it doesn't matter how good your car is, unless it is moving forward
you'll never get the full value from it. Now let's liken that to your business.
The petrol or diesel is your marketing, because without it your business will be
going nowhere fast. So why is it, that so many small business owners simply do
not have a budget allocated for marketing?
How can
they hope to drive their business without a marketing budget?
The truth
is that many small business owners have picked at a bit of advertising, perhaps
tried sending out some glossy brochures only to find that they received little
or nothing back from it, leaving them feeling despondent, annoyed at losing the
money they spent and of course frustrated at not knowing how to get it right.
If you want your business to be successful, you need to allocate
a
marketing budget and spend it wisely. Which leads us nicely onto the next
biggest mistake made by small business owners.
Mistake
No.3
Wasting
money on marketing that doesn't work
Virtually
everyone I speak to has spent money on marketing that doesn't work. I'll
include myself in that because over the years I’ve spend tens of thousands of
dollars on advertisements, faxes, direct
mail and
other marketing that has pulled little or no response. When it happens, you
think to yourself, "I am not going to do that again". But then sooner
or later a magazine will phone up with a last-minute offer that seems just too
good to be true. If you can relate to this, you'll like the solution. You see I
eventually discovered the right way to spend my marketing budget so that it
gets results
rather
than flushing it down the toilet. To achieve this, I have read hundreds of
books on marketing, sought out some of the best marketing experts in the world
and had them coach me. Having learnt what works and what doesn't, I then spent
eleven years testing all the different strategies and then working with over
1000 other companies to share information with them too. I would love to help
you further and so I will be shortly running a special Marketing Webinar with
stacks of useful marketing ideas that
I have
tried and tested personally - so I know that they work! I will send you full
details.
Mistake
No.4
Getting
advice from or using companies that don't know what they're talking about
In the
early days when I didn't know how to generate all the leads I wanted, the
temptation was to hire a marketing company. In fact, I hired not one but six
marketing companies in total. It seems that
their
expertise was in squandering my money rather then being accountable for the
results that I wanted them to generate. Each time, they would promise the
earth and then make feeble excuses as to why they hadn't achieved results. Two
that stick in my mind, "I can't believe it, this has never happened to us
before...", and the other was, "well there are no guarantees in
marketing!" I realise now that this is complete rubbish. If you follow a
tried, tested and proven strategy that works for others, it will work for you
too. That's why for example, with our Profit Booster Kit product, we are
prepared
to put our money where our mouth is. If you are going to use a marketing
company, make sure that they give you a guarantee like ours, which is:
“If after
applying the strategies in this program you are not completely delighted with
the extra profits that you've made, and you can have a whole year to decide,
you'll receive a prompt and
courteous
refund from us. No hassle, no quibble and no fuss. All that we ask is that you
show us that you have used the material. Could anything be fairer?”
Mistake
No.5
Looking
for new customers in the wrong places
This may
seem absolutely ludicrous that anyone would deliberately look in the wrong
place for potential new customers and even worse, place advertisements and
other marketing in the wrong places too. Surprisingly though, this
happens all too often. That is why it's critical to know who specifically your
customers are and where they hang out. For example, if you are running a
business as a mortgage broker and one of your products is a home loan which
requires no financial statements and the tiniest amount of paperwork, but at a
slightly higher interest rate than normal. Who would this appeal to most? The
answer might be self-employed people. (Can you see what we
have done
here? We have focussed in specifically on one product rather than trying to be
all things to all people. This is an important element in marketing.) So the next
question to ask yourself would be: where do they hang out? What do they read?
Who else is already speaking to them who is not a competitor? Taking all of
this information into account, you could quickly create a list such as:
·
Chambers of Commerce
· Breakfast
networking groups
· or even
Government funded events.
So where
do your customers hang out? Isn't that the best place to put your marketing
message?
Mistake
No.6
Creating
the wrong message about you
We've all
heard the expression that you only get one chance to make a good first
impression. The fact is though that many small business owners are too hung up
about spending money and end up creating a marketing image that looks homemade.
If you want to attract business, everything about your company needs to create
the right impression. I'm talking about your letterheads, business cards,
printing everything that your customers or potential customers are going
to use to decide whether or not you are worthy of their business. I can perhaps
best illustrate this with a story. A few years ago I was attending an
exhibition and I spotted an odd looking man in one of the tiniest
exhibition stands that I have ever seen. In fact, it looked more like a
broom cupboard. (He probably got it cheap-it's certainly looked like it!) So
being curious, I walked over to the exhibition stand then spoke to the man who
was dressed with a suit and bow tie. I asked him to tell me about his business
and he revealed that he was in fact a management consultant and handed me one
of his business cards. The moment that he did, what little credibility that he
had was instantly dissolved. The business card that he handed me was printed
straight from his ink jet printer on what looked like
reasonable
quality toilet paper. To make matters worse, the ink jet printer that he had
used to print
the
business cards was running low on ink for the ‘card’ that I received. So the
message that he was putting out was that he couldn't afford a full sized exhibition
stand and neither could he afford to pay for any business cards to be printed.
What a waste of time. Would you hire him as a
management
consultant in your business?
Mistake
No.7
Not
telling potential customers what they want to know
Since we were
talking about business cards in the last example, let me continue on the same
subject, since virtually all businesses have a business card. At least 50% of
all business cards that I am handed miss out the vital information that's
important to me, the person receiving the card. Take a look at the business
cards that you've received and you'll see what I mean. They have a persons
basic details on, a pretty logo and in most cases that's about it. Oh
dear, that will be costing that company money in lost business, lost
opportunity and ultimately lost profits. So what is the vital information? The
answer is, what can you do for them? So your business card needs to clearly
state on it what the
receiver
will get if they contact and work with your company. If you think about it,
isn't this really the only thing that they are interested in? As well as
telling someone what they will get from being a customer of yours, the second
thought is to remember that you want someone who has your business card to
remember you. Now we all remember names to a degree, if however you really want
a potential customer to remember you, put your photograph on your business
card. Do you remember faces more than names? I know I do. Finally, make
sure that you use the back of the business card too. This is a place where you
could add a powerful marketing message. How many do you see that are left
blank?
Mistake
No.8
Not using
the Internet to generate leads for you.
The
Internet is such a powerful tool yet most businesses don't realise how to
utilise this powerful resource to generate leads for them. Some have pretty
looking Websites but have no idea how to capture the traffic that visits their
Website. If you are serious about building your business, it is essential that
you understand how to utilise the power of the Internet, capture the traffic
that visits your site and learn how using cost per click campaigns you can
drive targeted traffic to your site.
You might
want to check out https://adwords.google.com/select/ where you will discover a
stepby-
step
process for setting up a ‘cost per click’ campaign. If you haven't seen this
before, it is essentially like paying for an advertisement where you only pay
for the responses you get. Imagine what it would be like if all the major magazines
conducted their advertising programs in this way. On the Marketing Webinar that
I mentioned earlier, you’ll get specific strategies for capturing traffic that
comes to your Website. That’s not all, I’ll then show you how you can transform
them into hot sales
leads.
Mistake
No.9
Trying to
advertise like the big guys
There is
a big difference between the advertising strategy you would adopt for marketing
a large multimillion-dollar company and that for a small business. You see, the
big guys have got big budgets and with big budgets you have more options. The
biggest difference though is that large companies are often focusing on
building their brand and getting their name better known. As a small business,
you will be more interested in creating direct response.
In other
words, you want your advertisement to generate leads that you can turn into
orders. You want to be able to see a direct return on your investment and as
quickly as possible. So when you are planning any type of advertising, think
about how you will measure the response and what response you expect, rather
than building a brand.
Mistake
No.10
Not
knowing your numbers
Many
small business owners see marketing as an expense rather than an investment.
Ask them if a campaign has been successful and more often than not the answer
will be a general "yes I think so, we haven't done too badly".
Responses like that are complete nonsense. What does haven't done too badly
mean?
Advertisement
in Woman’s World Magazine Results
No of
advertisements 6
Number of
leads generated 65
Number of
appointments made. 30
Number of
sales 15
Total
value of sales $ $14200
Total
Cost of promotion $ $5000
Profit $
$9200
You need
to know precisely how much you've spent and how many leads you have generated
from that spend. You then need to qualify how good each lead is and monitor
your conversion ratios. Only then will you be able to see how effective your
marketing is.
Mistake
No.11
Creating
a product or service for which there is no market
This
really amazes me. Business owners create a product or service and then try to
find a market for them. How crazy is that? Why create a product or service and
then go hunting, hoping that
you'll
find someone to buy it? The correct way is to find your market first, identify
the product or
service
that they are screaming out for and then give it to them. So for example, Dyson
identified that one of the frustrations in the vacuum cleaner market was that a
vacuum cleaner would start to lose suction as the dust bag filled up. Knowing
that there were millions of potential customers with their hands up waiting for
a bagless vacuum cleaner which would not lose suction, he created one and
subsequently took a huge share of the vacuum cleaner market from under the
noses of his competitors.
Mistake
No. 12
Not
having someone to answer your ‘phone!
Many
small business owners lose stacks of business because they don’t have anyone to
answer their phone when they are not there. Instead they have valuable sales
leads directed to an answer phone.
Each time
they hear a click as the phone is put down with no message being left, that’s
another potential customer lost. The solution is to hire a
professional phone answering service or virtual office. Prices range from about
$40 upwards per month. Typically they will answer calls in your name (you
divert when you are going out to the special number they give you).
They will
take the callers details, what they are calling about and then text or e-mail
you, so that you can call them back when convenient. You will not lose any
leads this way and it gives the impression that you have a full time
receptionist.
Some
people might be tempted to divert to their mobile, but then it often cuts out,
diverts to voicemail etc. If you give out your mobile as the only number, your
potential customer is being forced to pay for a premium rate call or use one of
your competitors. I wonder which option they will choose…
If you
found this e-book useful… Why not tell your friends and colleagues too so that
they can share
the
benefits?
I wish
you every success in your business. If I can help you
personally
with business advice or one-to-one coaching, please feel
free to
contact me in Australia on
+61 (07)
3886 8649
(GMT + 10
hours BST or +9 hours normally)
or by
e-mail
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Keith
Banfield
PS. This
e-book is copyrighted but if you want to give it away as a FREE download to
people visiting your Website, or as a FREE bonus to your customers, you can.
The only condition is that you do not
adjust,
alter or change it in any way. It can only be given away exactly as you see
here.
For more
information call me on (07) 3886 8649
Keith Bamfield
Copyright
© 2009
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