7 Deadly Sins of Marketing

Sin 1: Not having a strategic Unique Value Proposition or a Core Story.

An unfortunately common trait among small and medium size businesses is that when they make their brochure, their website, their advertisements, and their sales presentations, they copy almost word for word what their competitors are saying instead of trying to show how they are unique and different. Essentially they make themselves a generic carbon copy of their competitors. This is the #1 reason why so many businesses fail. Instead of showing how they are unique and different from their competitors, they instead try to show how they are the same as their competitors. They do nothing to distinguish themselves as being different and special in their marketplace.

If we asked 20 executives in your marketplace how your business is different from your competitors, what would they say? Would they confuse you with your competitors? For a business to be successful it must be perceived as being different and superior to its competitors so people have a strong reason to choose to do business with your company instead of your competitors.

Sin 2: You do not have a singularly focused and unified marketing message across all sales, marketing, advertising, and PR channels, as well as throughout your organization.

If we reviewed all of your company’s sales, marketing, advertising, and PR materials, would the marketing message be identical or would we see many different messages, all describing your business, your products and services, and the benefits you provide differently?

If we surveyed all of the employees at your business, would every employee describe your business the same way or would everyone give us a different answer? It is vitally important for a business to have a singular and unified marketing message that is easily remembered by your employees and your marketplace so everyone has the same vision of your company and the value it provides.

Sin 3: Your marketing message focuses on features instead of value-driven benefits.

Ask yourself, “What are the top 2-3 most valuable end-result benefits your marketplace receives from your product or service that they cannot receive from your competitors?” People buy the desired end result–not a product or service.

Sin 4: Using boring “safe” sales literature and advertising that looks identical to their competitors’ advertising.

According to advertising research studies, people see anywhere from 150 – 5,000 marketing messages every day and they remember less than one percent of them. In the past week, you have seen most likely seen over 1,000 advertising messages. How many do you remember? 1? 3? If we surveyed your marketplace, do you think anybody would remember your advertising message and how your business’s products or services will benefit them? Would they even recognize the name of your business? What are you doing to make your advertising stand out and be remembered so your marketplace chooses to do business with you instead of your competitors? The biggest and most expensive mistake in advertising is playing it safe and being boring.

Sin 5: Your business does not make use of the power of marketing repetition.

Because of the endless bombardment of marketing messages people are exposed to every single day, people have to be exposed to a marketing message at least 12 times to even begin to notice it. They may have to see a marketing message 20+ times before they will even consider taking any action to learn more about the product or service and your business. How many times is your target market is exposed to your marketing message every day… every week… every month? Out of sight is out of mind. This is why low-cost Internet display advertising and Remarketing advertising are so important for a successful marketing program. They put your marketing message in front of your target market over and over at the lowest cost of any advertising channel.

Sin 6: When a business does digital marketing or any type of marketing that directs a person to go to their website, the business does not use focused and highly persuasive landing pages to persuade people to take action now.

Sending paid traffic to your home page where people have many different competing distractions (dozens of competing messages and links) and no direction of what to do almost always ends in the same result–people not taking action of any type except to leave your website. Conversion optimization tests have shown you will get an immediate bump of 2-10% in leads and sales by sending your paid traffic to single action highly sales-focused landing page instead of to your home page. That is why having highly focused benefit-rich landing pages are so vitally important to achieving success and a positive return on investment from Internet marketing.

Sin 7: Not having a systematic testing and optimization program for your website and landing pages to convert a higher percentage of your website visitors into leads and customers.

Companies that excel in business today are companies that excel in testing and optimizing their website’s marketing message and user experience to increase conversion rates, sales, and profits.

How to avoid these deadly marketing mistakes

Avoid making these costly and potentially business-destroying marketing mistakes by partnering with The Geisheker Group to build, manage, and optimize a strategic marketing program for your business.

For more information and a free no-obligation quote for our marketing services, contact us by clicking the button below.