Your Marketing Magnet

Here are a few more MONSTROUS marketing mistakes to identify and avoid making in order to increase your productivity:

Over-Preparing and Doing Nothing

The fear of failure can be powerful. So powerful that we do everything we can think of to prevent it. Yet there’s a point at which we are so busy preparing, organizing, and researching to prevent failure that we never get around to the actual marketing of the business. Here are two things to remember:  Activity is not productivity.  In order to sell a million of something, you have to sell the first ONE.

Avoid making this mistake by doing something! If you believe in your business and have done your detective work, it’s time to dive into the marketing pool. Start small, track results and build from there.  Not being afraid to make a mistake. Mistakes are the entry to success. At the very least, a failed promotion means you have SUCCESSFULLY determined what promotion does not work. And, to learn what does NOT work is a valuable tool in getting you closer to discovering what WILL work. So, go ahead. Fail a little. It will make your eventual successes even sweeter.

Boredom

When I was working for agencies, I had one client that was running an extremely successful campaign. After about six months, I received a phone call saying that he wanted to develop an entirely new campaign. When I asked, “why?” he simply said, “I’m bored with the one we have.”

While he had the money to spend on a new campaign, switching promotions due to boredom is detrimental to your business!  Where as “losing money”, is not.

Avoid this mistake by remembering that, what is old to you, is new to an untapped target market. If you have a promotion that is consistently getting you results, stick with it until the results run out. Always test new promotions without abandoning the current one. Then track results.  And never swap a current promotion for one that hasn’t been tested.

Relying on Networking to Generate Sales Leads

Joining the Chamber of Commerce and schmoozing at association meetings can put you in contact with vendors and possible joint venture partners, and will be invaluable exposure for you as a community supporter – but it will rarely generate substantial sales leads.

Everyone else who attends these “meet and greet” assemblies is there to do the same thing you are. You may be able to make some valuable contacts for future ventures and promotions, but one-on-one networking is time-consuming and results are unpredictable.

Avoid this mistake by treating networking opportunities the same as any other marketing tactic. Track results by determining your costs and measuring your payback.