Common Marketing Mistakes: Five marketing Tips You Should Never Forget

I’ve been working in the creative field since 1997, when I landed my first job as a production grunt at a small advertising agency. Since then, I have been a Graphic Designer, Senior Designer, Creative Services Director, Graphic Design Specialist, Publication Manager, Creative Director, Instructor, Lecturer, and Business Owner. I also did internships and worked at a magazine, a newspaper, an advertising agency, a public relations firm, a marketing firm, a design company, and a printer.

As you can imagine, I have seen some pretty bad graphic design mistakes and marketing mistakes over the years. The graphic design mistakes alone could take up a few blog posts, so I am going to focus on and share with you the biggest marketing mistakes I see business owners, service professionals, and entrepreneurs make.

Marketing Mistake #1
Forgetting about your current clients and customers.
While it is very important to always be marketing your business, engaging new prospects, and generating new leads, it is just as important to nurture the relationships with your existing customers and clients. They are your most valuable resource and you want them to always feel important.

Marketing Mistake #2
Forgetting to define your niche.
You absolutely have to define your target market and the niche you are speaking to. Several times I have been speaking with a client who answers the question, “Who are you targeting?” with “Everyone.” Give me a break! Either you so arrogant that you think every single person on the planet is your perfect, ideal customer, or you don’t understand that by generally speaking to everyone, you hook no one.

If you don’t pick a niche and tailor all of your marketing to speak directly to that niche, no one reading your marketing will connect with it, and say, “Oh my gosh that is me! I need this product/service.”

Marketing Mistake #3
Forgetting that they don’t care about you.
Most people know that no one wants to listen to you go one and on and talk about yourself constantly. So, what is it that businesses seem to think people do want to hear them ramble on and on about how great they are?

The truth is that your audience doesn’t care about how great you are, they care about what’s in it for me, why do I care, and how is this going to help me? Only after these questions are addressed can you establish why you’re the person they should be listening to.

Marketing Mistake #4
Forgetting that marketing is a process.
Marketing isn’t a one time event. It isn’t a single thing you do and then forget about. Marketing is an ongoing process of trying out ideas, testing them, reviewing the results, tweaking them, and trying them again.

A mistake that I see many business owners make is placing a single ad and ho[ping for great results. It takes anywhere from seven to twelve marketing “touches” before your message sinks in to your audience’s minds. That means one ad is probably going to produce very little results, while an advertising campaign spanning a length of time may be much more effective.

You can’t try a marketing strategy or tactic just one time and then give up on it because sometimes everything about it great expect for one small change that needs to be made. Instead of giving up, change something and try it again. Evaluate the results and repeat until you find the perfect marketing piece that works for you.

Marketing Mistake #5
Forgetting to follow up.
You’ve heard the phrase the fortune is in the follow up, but why is it that most people fail in the follow up department? In many cases no follow up is done at all! I’ll admit that one of the growing pains I have suffered during my business growth is a lack of follow up with my clients. My problem was time and a lack of delegation.

My advice to you is to get systems in place to make follow up easy for you. Make use of multi-step auto responders, hire an assistant or business manager, or use a checklist. After all, you got their attention, follow up with your audience, leads, and prospects to keep them engaged and interested.

I am sure that you are currently, or have been guilty of at least one of these marketing mistakes. I’ll admit that I have committed each one at some point. The key is to realize the mistake and take positive action toward creating change and building a better business.

Do you have another marketing mistake to add to the list? Have you made one of these mistakes? I’d love to hear what you have to say…