3 Fatal Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

3 Fatal Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

December 8th, 2009 @ MsMedia // 2 Comments

1. Forgetting to Pick Your Market First.

Many entrepreneurs, both beginners and experienced, stumble here. It’s so easy to fall in love with your product or service.

I’m embarrassed to tell you the following story but, since it illustrates the point, I will swallow my pride. A number of years ago I went into a recording studio with a couple of friends. We recorded a song and released it as a CD single.

We loved our song, of course, and we figured out a smart way to sell it. At least, so we thought. There was to be a big concert in a few weeks, and thousands of youth would gather for this event. A perfect opportunity for us! These young people were music lovers after all, and for sure, a lot of them would buy our CD.

The big day finally arrived, but soon turned into a dismal failure rather than a smashing success. I don’t remember if we sold even ONE copy of our “great hit”, but the people standing next to us were having a “field day”.

These smart marketers were selling a silly toy that started to glow as soon as you bent it. Thousands of youth put this ridiculous thing around their heads or hands. It continued to glow for a few hours, and that was it!

The stupid toy had a “life expectancy” of a few hours and was totally useless after that. Yet no one could deny that the product was a smashing sales success.

There were several problems with our CD single: People had never heard about us, we didn’t even play a sample of the song, and the song was probably not as great as we thought! Lesson learned.

Who cares if you love your product? The battle is won or lost on day one, when you pick your market. That’s why some successful marketers will give you the following answer, if you ask them what has made them a lot of money online: “I sell stuff that people are buying!”

Remember to sell stuff that “people are buying!” Ok?

2. Being All Things to All People.

It has been said: “When everyone is your customer, no one is your customer. How true. Small businesses especially thrive on providing specialized products and services to well defined niches.

It can be tempting to try to reach the “world”, but it’s expensive and a bad plan.

I once heard the following amazing story about a famous car model. It was decided that the selling price should be reduced significantly. Then something weird happened. Instead of sales picking up, sales actually dropped!

Since this car was perceived by people as “the car that most people can’t afford”, the people that COULD afford this vehicle actually lost interest in it. What to do next? Turn the price right back up, of course! Do you wonder what happened next? You guessed it! Immediate sales boost.

The “car that most people can’t afford” was back! Just like the wealthy people wanted it.

Who said psychology in sales is not important?

3. The “Me Too” Trap.

Ken McCarthy writes the following about what he calls the “Me Too” trap, and it’s an excellent description of a common problem:

“People see something that appears to be successful and then try to copy it. The problem with this approach, that we see on the internet all the time, is 10,000 people end up selling the same product, the same way. The market gets flooded and no one makes any money.”

We have already discussed that you should be picking your market first, rather than starting out by falling in love with a product that no one wants.

The solution to problems 2. and 3. has to do with what is called “Positioning”. Positioning means “to stand for something” and is even more important than price and guarantees and everything else.

Apple Computer stands for innovation. Paris stands for art and romance. If you want an Apple Computer, only Apple will do.

This is what you need to strive to achieve for your product or service: An identity for your product that is crystal clear and one-of-a-kind.

Now get to work. These 3 fatal marketing mistakes can be avoided and should be avoided at all costs.

Create something unique that the market wants, and you are headed in the direction of business success.

Category : Charles Jahren &How To