Nobody’s perfect, and even the best marketing manager can make mistakes. Some of these marketing mistakes are extremely common, so we figured we’d highlight them so you can recognize them when you see them. 
#1: Assume People Know What You’re Talking About
It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the details of your product or service that you forget people don’t always know what you’re talking about. Sure, two efficient and effective blog posts you wrote awhile ago explained the basics of your offering, but what about the users who read your blog today for the very first time? Do you think they’re going to hunt back through the blog posts for the basic info? Not a chance.
Resolve this by finding a way to balance your information so it’s new and fresh for regular readers and comprehensive for new ones. Maybe the use of “flashbacks” like they do in the movies, side bars or hyperlinks to former, related posts can do it for you.
#2: Focus on Features, Not Benefits
Simply put, every marketer should know this but many of them don’t. Your customer really doesn’t care that your bandwidth is X gigabytes or you spend X dollars on market research each year. What he cares about is how that translates into a benefit for him. Time after time you see content marketing that focuses on the features and leaves the client to draw the conclusions himself.
Resolve this by putting yourself in the client’s shoes and asking the question “so what?” in response to every feature you’re tempted to promote. Once you have an answer, that’s your marketing focus right there. For example: X gigabytes of bandwidth means faster download time. So market faster download time instead of the fact.
#3: Behave Like a Marketer
In the era of inbound marketing, it’s all about finding solutions to your customers’ problems. It’s not about what matters to you (sales!) but about what you can do for him—or her—to make their lives easier or provide the answer they need. Hard-sell days are over, and the traditional approach of pushing your information at people no longer works. Neither does the old adage of closing the deal by asking for the order. Pushy people are shown the door.
Resolve this by researching your prospective target market and making an effort to understand their needs and wants. Then find a way to fulfill those needs so the clients come looking for you.
#4: Market by Committee
Everyone’s a marketing professional these days. Yeah, right. Just because the senior partner is, well—a senior partner, doesn’t make him knowledgeable about marketing. So don’t try and get approval from half a dozen people for every campaign, or you’ll end up with no cohesion and flow because everyone has a different way of doing it.
Select one or two senior people with marketing experience to bounce off your ideas, and a single person to approve what you’re doing (and spending budget on) if necessary. No more.
#5: Talk Too Much and Listen Too Little
Marketers are often so enthusiastic about their company, product or service that they simply can’t wait to spread the joy. Whether it’s in writing, on a blog or communicating with social media profiles or in person, don’t fall into the trap of forcing your opinion on your receiver.
Resolve this by focusing on obtaining feedback through your marketing. Ask questions on social media that elicit responses and engage your followers.
#6: Try to Sell to Everyone
“Everyone” isn’t a target market. One of the most common—and most damaging—mistakes marketing managers can make is to set a target audience that’s too broad. Unless you’re selling No Name milk, you don’t have everyone as a market. And even then, you can break it down into customers who like different size containers of No Name milk.
Resolve this by defining your target market as narrowly as possible, then fine-tuning it until you have different segments within it. Zero in on the niche within the segment that you consider your absolute primary customer, and craft customer personas around those people. Then base your marketing activities on reaching them.
#7: Follow the Sheep
The “same old same old” doesn’t do anything for anybody. Just because your competition is doing TV ads, it’s no reason to do the same. Don’t follow the pack—in fact, if you can find out what they are doing and do the exact opposite you’ll have a better chance of breaking the mold and attracting visits from potential customers.
Use competitor research to identify what your competition is doing and then figure out how to present customers with an answer and a choice.
Focus on avoiding these common mistakes and you’ll see the results in the number of leads you generate.
*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
