8 Common Marketing Mistakes

Advertising can be one of the fastest ways to market and grow your business or one of the quickest ways to go out of business. With the right ad, you can attract clients to your business and increase your profits. With the wrong ad, you can spend your way into bankruptcy.

To grow your business, you need to attract the attention of your prospects, and advertising can help you do so if used correctly. Unfortunately, many small businesses owners waste thousands of dollars on advertising efforts that only achieve minimal results.

If you want to get the most from the money you spend to promote your products and services, avoid these common mistakes.

Focusing on Your Products and Services

If you want to get the attention of your prospects, speak to their needs and wants. Your prospects' primary concern isn't that you've been in business for 25 years; do you know the problem they want to solve. Use your ad to identify at least one common problem of your prospects and the benefit of using your product or service.

Having a Weak Marketing Message

You often hear ads, and it takes some thought to figure out what they are even promoting. Ensure your advertisement includes a 7-10 word description of whom you serve and the problems you solve so people who read or hear your ad know how you can help them.

Using the Wrong Words

A word here, a phrase there, can change your response rate by hundreds of percent. When you spend money on advertising, first test several versions of your copy to identify the one that works best. By revising ad copy, so it's client and problem-centered, you can achieve better results and sales.

Missing Motivation

Most ads miss the mark in moving prospects to action. If you want to prompt prospects to visit your website or your store or contact you, include an offer that motivates them.

Lacking in Frequency

Some people make spur-of-the-moment buying decisions, but most need to become familiar with your services and products, which takes time. If you want your advertising to work, you need to ensure that your prospects see or hear it regularly.

Web Sites that Don't Move Prospects to Action

Many small business owners direct prospects to a website where they have more extensive content covering available services and products. I am constantly hearing from people who have been successful at attracting prospects to their website but generate few sales.

Once prospects get to your website, make sure the content and visual organization move them to take the action you want them to. Whether it is providing them with ample opportunities to fill in your service inquiry form or including a subset of your product catalog in your web page navigation bars, help prospects move to client and customer status.

Lack of Follow Up

Sometimes making a sale requires sending a note or picking up the phone and calling your prospects. If you have an effective lead generation strategy, prospects will provide you with their contact information and the problem they want to be solved. Use the web, email, and phone to follow up and close the sale.

Lack of Tracking

If you are making more from your advertising than you are spending, you're ahead. Frequently small business owners can't tell you which of their efforts helped bring in the business. Track each of your ad campaigns, and you'll know where to spend your money in the future, what to modify and what to eliminate.

Do you know how many sales and how much money you made due to each of your advertising campaigns?

    Are you making any of the above common marketing mistakes?

    What elements of your marketing should you change?

Put your marketing house in order. Fix your strategy and your materials. If you don't know what to change or how to change it, use experts to help you with strategy, copyrighting, design, PR, and media placement. 

Avoid these common marketing mistakes, and you'll find more people contacting you about your products and services.