Common Marketing Mistakes
Too many leads but not converting enough leads to meet your goals?
Phone ringing or inbox stuffed with inquiries, and not getting enough of the right prospects?
Tried different marketing methods or companies with questionable success?
Question the effectiveness and expense of your marketing department?
The question is, which marketing method works better than others and what works best overall.
Marketers have persuaded you that all you need is…
No wonder business people and even marketing departments can’t agree.
Furthermore, we find business owners use one of 6 losing methods when marketing.
1. Finger on the pulse: The business owner that wants to touch all parts of their marketing, be in the marketing and has their finger on the pulse of marketing campaigns. They have a role in every marketing piece that goes out. While it is essential for the owner to approve all the marketing that goes out. It takes away from the business owner time when they could be spending it somewhere else making more profit.
2. All hands on deck: The business owner has the (unskilled marketers) staff working on their marketing campaigns when they have time around their regular scheduled work. Placing social media ads here and there, and whatever’s at the top of their mind. Leading to inconsistent results and ineffective marketing because they aren’t trained marketers posting consistently.
3. Piecemeal Method: The business owner hires one or more marketing companies to handle tasks, along with having their staff write content for the marketing company, they do this because the marketing company says… I don’t know your business as you do, so you write it up, and I’ll post it in different areas. Piecemealing leads to issues because the staff who’s not a trained copywriter is writing content that doesn’t move people to buy. (more on copywriting down the page) Not only that if the no new customers results, the marketing company can say… hey, I did what I was supposed to do… posted information, I didn’t write it… so it puts the pressure back on the business owner. Piecemealing can be extremely dangerous to business. Because now when that topic is brought up by another marketer, coworker, friend, or family … the first instinct is… “I tried that method, and it didn’t work, so there’s no use investing in that again. I need something new… that works”. Saying that is like saying a hammer can’t build a house because you watched someone else try to create something with a hammer and fail. Social media, videos, emails, text are just tools… nothing more than just a tool. What you do with the tool is up to you. Look around, and you’ll find a person that has had no success with a particular tool in their business, while their direct competitor is wildly successful using the same tool. It’s all around you happening every second of the day.
4. The Friend and Family Plan: (Aka I know someone that does that.) The business owner hires a friend or family member to handle the marketing. This person handles all posts on social media and the website. Keeping track of what’s being said about the company and reacting to it as it comes in. Friends and family in business can cause strong animosity if things go wrong especially if the owner lays down a significant amount of cash only to watch it go up in smoke. On top of that, we hear… so and so just graduated from said college and has a marketing degree, so they know "exactly" what they are doing when it comes to marketing. Well, they may have a degree in marketing… let me ask you... If you have a degree from college, how much of what you learned in college is being applied today in your business right now? There’s a world of difference between a marketing degree and real-world marketing knowledge. In college, they study concepts and case studies from others. It’s completely different when real money is up for the taking.
5. It’s Social Media’s Fault we're not getting results: You’re paying $2,000/month to hire a social media company to get your presence out there, but results aren’t forthcoming. You’re getting the visits, hits, etc. but it's not converting into paying clients. We have found that it’s not the social media's fault it’s the lack of content that joins the conversation already going on in your prospect’s mind. The social media company nor the owner realizes it’s due to poor content. The lack of a clear, engaging message. So, they blame the SM and hire another with the same results.
6. Failing sales department: Often it shows up as the lack of production. Many owners and decision makers are quick to blame ineffective salespeople. A failing sales department leads to turnover, rising training costs, poor morale, and diminished outcomes.
One of the less known reasons is that weak sales aren’t always the salesperson's fault.
We’ve found a marketing department that doesn’t work side by side with the sales department leads to poor sales performance.
Sales vs. Marketing
- Salespeople have an important voice but don’t feel the marketing team hears them
- Salesperson wants to sell. Owners hire salespeople to figure out their marketing
- Salespeople are minions and dispensable
When marketing doesn’t value the sales input, it makes it harder on the salesperson to close the sale. Too often the marketing strategy is developed in isolation leaving critical information out of the plan.
Testing an idea in the field is the best way to see if it will work as planned.
The marketing department may have great ideas, although testing in the field is when results happen. Salespeople are closer in place and time to the customers' real needs and wants. Input needs to be systematic as part of the marketing strategy.
We’ve heard salespeople complain, “I want to sell, and don’t have the marketing support, collateral materials (digital or print), or proper training to back us up. The owners expect us to take our selling time to fill in the gaps.”
The most effective scenario is to develop a relevant marketing strategy and tactical selling tools with input from those who interact with customers and clients.
When communication is unified between the sales department and marketing department, only then using the above methods will lead to a marketing strategy and relevant tactical selling tools that allow a company to become even more successful and generate money at a higher rate, faster.
It’s not the fault of the business owner for not knowing which is the best method to take to produce lasting results. Nevertheless, it is the business owner’s responsibility to produce results.
That said a business owner that focuses on results… wins.
7. Results Based:
The business owners care that the marketing methods uses are ethical and get results... fast. They hire a team to do it. Now, this method is a sound method because it removes all the pressure from the business owner and employees and puts the focus on the marketer.
It’s now the responsibility of the marketer to figure out the best tools, come up with the right content, and place it in the tools that produce results, which add to your bottom line.
Here’s Where Sales Performance Starts:
All great sales campaigns and messaging must first start with an excellent marketing strategy.
However, statistics reveal that less than 1% of CEOs, business owners, and decision-makers genuinely understand marketing strategy.
As a result, when sales fall they usually say, “Let’s double down on sales. Hire more salespeople. Give them better training. Fire all the current ones. We need to work harder, longer, get better salespeople.” Something has to change.
Understand that an effective sales campaign built on a rock solid marketing strategy is a strategy that works.
Marketing is what you say and how you say it to position your company in the mind of your prospect such that they conclude “I need to buy their product/service.”
When a staff member is directed to write a sales message and send it out to the world, the majority of the time it falls on deaf ears.
No one is listening because it’s not talking directly to their wants and needs as a consumer. Often the messaging is isolated and not part of a focused marketing strategy.
A highly trained copywriter, one who knows how to listen, then translate the message into a clear, concise message that's laser-focused, gets results.
A trained copywriter knows how to listen between the words to get the real meaning of the message, not the surface material, such as features and benefits. Going deeper than features and benefits.
Note: a copywriter is not an English major. Just because someone can write for a professional magazine or impress a teacher, it can lead to disaster when selling a product or service.
It’s like comparing a Luxury Car to a Jet Car; you’ll have a different experience. Both are great and have different purposes.
It’s important to know when to use an English major vs. a copywriter then when to mix the two to create compelling, moving content.
Think technical writing with a boost of motivation to do something now about the problem at hand.
Now when the sales team and customers clearly communicate to the marketing team what the customer’s wants and needs are, the marketing team is responsible is to put together a campaign that becomes exceptionally effective, regardless of what tool they use to send the message.
You see it’s the words and pictures being used to describe what the customer’s needs are for them to buy.
Your message must be translated correctly to be effective. Using all available tools at hand.
In short marketing (words and pictures) is the life-blood of business.
A company can have the best product in the world. If no one knows about it, it does no one good.
We’ve all seen products that are trash… make millions because it has a well-crafted marketing message built around it.
The worst thing for a salesperson is to go after a hot lead only to find out they didn’t have a clear understanding of the product or service, to begin with, because of the marketing. Leading to a lost sale and time wasted.
Also applies to customer service; all need to be on the same page to make it work.
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