Marketing Influencers

5 Reasons Your Business Marketing Fails!

As solution providers, we often feel the most insane task we perform in our business might be the act of marketing. To compound matters, we have limited time, limited resources and very little understanding (if we are honest with ourselves) about why are customers respond or do not respond to our marketing efforts. What we are really doing is practicing a form of insanity. By this I am mean you market to your clients the same way over and over expecting different results.
The bottom line is that sales drive profits and profits provide you the ability to hire additional resources and reach more clients — which should give you back more time to concentrate on growing your business. Sales are fueled by marketing. So, what is marketing and why is it the last item added to the budget?

Marketing Basics

Marketing is the process of courting potential customers; keeping your product top of mind; driving demand for your products and forming a positive perception about your offering in the minds of current and future clients. When we don’t practice good marketing we experience feast or famine in our sales pipeline, forcing us to perform insane marketing tactics in hopes of building our pipeline.
Stop the Insanity.

Common Marketing Mistakes

I am going to share with you 5 reasons why marketing fails. These mistakes are made by the best of us, but understanding how to stop the insanity will help you make better choices with your time and money.

Marketing Mistake 1: Aiming at everyoneNo one can be all things to all people. It is true that marketing to large volumes of clients might make the phone ring more frequently, but it will also require more human resources to qualify callers and turn unqualified callers away. The best marketers know that a focused audience can increase the intensity of your brand appeal, drive demand and increase margins. You’re better off being the 1st choice of 10% of your target audience than one of 10 choices.

Marketing Mistake 2: Focused on features instead of valueI always remind my clients that “no one cares what you do until they know what you do for them.” Most clients expect you to deliver what other solution providers offer. What you want to convey is the value or experience that a future client can expect by using your services. Selling the experience speaks to your red-hot value; features selling leaves you looking vanilla.

Marketing Mistake 3: Your message is weakYour future clients should be able to quickly understand what you do for them. Often a solution provider’s message reads like a mission statement or leaves the prospect unable to distinguish unique advantages. Describe your client’s challenges back to them and speak to how you make their lives easier. Stop talking about the type of technology you provide. As a result, your future client will better understand what it is you do (for them).

Marketing Mistake 4: You fail to go the distance
Marketing is the process of courting a client through the buying-decision process. One of the biggest mistakes made in marketing is giving up on a buyer before they are ready to buy. Often we follow-up, send a couple of emails and hope the prospective client engages with our attempts to sell our product/services. When they don’t respond, we write them off as “bad-leads” and move onto the next call. Statistics show that most clients need a minimum of 7-touches before they are convinced they can do business with you. Relationship selling begins with trust. Don’t give up before they are ready to engage.

Marketing Mistake 5: You ignore your current customersTypically it will cost you five-times more to get a new client than to keep your current client happy. Don’t ignore your current client base. On-boarding, awareness of new products and periodic communication is key to making your clients paying customers for life. Now that you’ve got them, keep them.

Ginger Clay provides the spunk and drive behind 4-Profit’s marketing strategy, which is designed to help solution providers transition from little to no-marketing to focused outsourced marketing strategy that positions solution providers uniquely in their market space, drives demand, and maximize sales effectiveness. To learn more about 4-Profit and Ginger’s services visit www.4-profit.com.