5 Marketing Mistakes You Could Be Making

As any entrepreneur knows, marketing and business ownership is a journey in itself – replete with ups and downs and myriad lessons. And even when we give it our best shot, sometimes it seems that we just can’t win with  our businesses. 

So what do you do when things just aren’t going well? 

 You’ve got your business started and you’re up and running – but, well, it’s not working great. You feel like you’re failing and you’re not sure why. 

In this post, I’ll share five mistakes common to new marketers – and ways to avoid them. By checking off this list, you’ll be well on your way to identifying what needs to change in your own business – and you might just find the problem. 

First, are you marketing to the wrong people? 

Sometimes we have a product that we can’t wait to get “out there”. We promote it. Then, we offer a lead magnet. We do WHATEVER it takes to get our product in front of our audience…. 

…but we’re offering it to the wrong people. 

How could someone make such an “obvious” mistake?

It’s easier than you might think. Let’s say that you’re developing an affiliate marketing business and you are offering a product to beginner affiliate marketers. You’re intentionally targeting these individuals with training on how to outsource Facebook ads. 

When affiliate marketers first start out, they typically will pay with their time, not with their money. Sometimes a person may pay with their money and have somebody else do it, but most of us start out paying with our own time because we’re learning. We’re not yet sure where we want to spend our own time and what we want to outsource. Hence, if somebody is brand new in the affiliate marketing business, training on how to outsource Facebook ads is probably not going to be a product they’re interested in. They’re not the right people for that product.

So – especially if you’re not seeing the results you want – ask yourself: what am I selling and who am I selling to?

Second, is your message right?

Let’s borrow an example from healthcare – perhaps you have a fantastic, proven diet and you’re marketing it as the best diet to help someone lose 10 pounds. You know that it does work and that most people who need to lose weight need it. But from the perspective of the person hearing that message, they may not want to give up their pop, or their carbs, or their favorite treat.

If this is consistent in your audience, your message may need to be to lose weight and not give up your carbs. You may need to teach your audience how to lose weight and cut the carbs back, rather than eliminate them completely. 

Think about your messaging. What is going to attract that other person? What is it that they’re thinking? Obviously we all know that eating healthy is the best choice, but it can be a process to develop that mindset. So think about the messaging that you have in your marketing.  Your message is part of your brand as a business, it needs to be consistent.

Third, are you asking your audience to do the wrong thing?

What on earth do I mean by that?

When you’re marketing – especially affiliate marketing – there is typically a funnel process you will use. You usually begin with free valuable content, and as you consistently offer value and build a relationship with your audience, you can offer them more and more products. 

However, what if you pull a brand new lead into your funnel and immediately offer them a great $3,000 training course? Let’s assume this is somebody that’s never seen you before, and right away you’re trying to hit them with a $3,000 high ticket item. Such efforts are probably not going to go over very well – unless they’re listening to someone else’s referral, they don’t likely have any trust in you or your product. So make sure that you’re not saying the wrong thing at the wrong time! 

A good example of a better method can be found in Russell Bronson’s book Dotcom Secrets, who uses a sales ladder. He starts out with a free book and slowly moves up to a high ticket item. This demonstrates the “funnel” idea, where a business can start with that free item and then funnel audience members down with one product at a time. As your audience moves down the funnel, the product can get steadily larger.

Fourth, have you fallen for the idea that you can advertise anywhere and everywhere?

You’ve probably heard the saying before – if you’re trying to sell to everyone, you will sell to no one. This requires consistent reflection. Who is your audience? Who are you targeting? What is your message? And are you trying to sell to everybody? 

Although you may want your product to appeal to everyone, odds are high that you need to focus on a particular niche. For example, even though we all need to be healthy, you can’t effectively market a health product to the world. However, you can niche down and offer a product to women over fifty, or to college basketball players, or to those who are intimidated by the thought of the “health journey”. 

People want to feel like you are talking right to them – that you are speaking to their individual needs. So make sure that you know who you’re talking to, what you’re saying, and how you’re targeting your audience. Do you need to niche down even further? 

Fifth, do you have your marketing system in place?

There’s a great deal to say about this, and it could easily become its own course – but today I’ll simply provide three basics as a starting point.

First, do you have a lead generation system in place? Do you have a system for collecting leads, building your email marketing list, and expanding your engaged audience?

Second, do you convert your leads? Are you collecting emails and letting them gather dust, or are you communicating value to your audience and converting them to customers? Third, do you turn your leads into a dedicated “fan base”? Do you get so excited about sales that you forget to go back and keep building a deeper relationship with your customers?

In conclusion, these five mistakes provide a great starting ground to analyze your own marketing system. Even if your business is growing and marketing seems to be fine, it is still incredibly valuable to revisit these ideas and constantly re-evaluate yourself and your business. Are you as effective as you could be? What can you change? What can be better? 

No business owner is perfect – and even those making millions of dollars are constantly seeking to improve and better their companies. 

And guess what? 

So can you. 

You’ve got this!