Making mistakes are considered mistakes because they’re repeated over and over again. The trick is learning to not make them, to avoid the most frequent of errors which are made by marketers, when attempting to develop, execute, and profit from their ad campaigns.
What you first need to know is what they are, this to avoid them. Whenever the marketing of a product or service is involved, what you need is a firm understanding of who your audience is, the message you’re delivering, the offer that you’re making, and the timing.
Too often, what most marketers will do is they’ll stubbornly make the same costly mistakes repeatedly, which results in poor performance of their marketing campaigns, then they get flustered, frustrated, or go broke and then quit.
These mistakes can be avoided with better planning, giving attention to detail with ongoing tracking, testing, and evaluation. So whatever method of marketing you’re attempting, what you need to know are the most common mistakes.
Getting The Precise Timing
You may have an excellent list, a great offer, or a well designed advertising website, but if your timing is off, then your results will be off as well. You usually find this out after an expensive marketing campaign. They’re well executed and compelling, but they fail to produce any results.
It’s not the product, it’s not the marketing method, it’s because the campaign was introduced to the consumer when they had absolutely no interest in buying it. Selling snow shovels on the Fourth of July isn’t good timing.
Not Testing Your Headline
The first thing that your prospect reads which just takes a few seconds is to absorb your headline. The best ones will turn your casual reader into a prospective buyer, prompting them to read further, to understand your offer, and then inviting them to take action.
Regardless of the marketing method, you should be constantly testing and tweaking your headlines by split-testing and then evaluating their response. This ensures that the marketing message is attracting the largest range of prospective buyers.
Not Testing Your Offer
When it comes to direct marketing, it’s thought that your offer is directly correlated to 40% percent of the response you get. If you have the exact offer they’re looking for, then they’ll respond.
There are other factors involved, but providing a compelling offer at the precise time is required in most instances. Offers can range anywhere from discounts, to “while supplies last,” but what they all have in common is testing your offers for optimizing conversions.
Have A Good List
Having the best offer along with award-winning content isn’t enough. For the majority of marketing campaigns, your success is dependent on a targeted list.
With all of the sophisticated list generation sales funnels which are now available, you can generate precise lists which are highly segmented, targeted based on the exact demographics and buying behavior, and every characteristic in between.
So if you’re wondering where to invest your marketing dollars, spend it on developing, collecting a list of names for your own, as you know that they’re precisely targeted and responsive.
Retargeting Your Marketing Message
On average, it’s thought that consumers are now exposed with over 2,000 marketing messages on a daily basis. It’s also known that consumers need to be exposed to your marketing message anywhere from 7 to 12 times before they’ll take notice, hopefully take action.
So what you constantly need to do is communicate your product, service, or message to your prospects so they’ll take this notice. Placing a single ad on Facebook or a website, or sending out just a single email won’t deliver any effective results.
Determine the exact media where your prospects hang out at, know what and how they use to gather the information that they need, and then develop an ongoing marketing campaign targeting them there.
Tracking Your Campaigns Effectiveness
The only juice that your business, product, or concern thrives on is targeted marketing. Even if you’re an affiliate marketer wondering how you’re going to reach a prospective audience, what you’re going to need is effective tracking.
Regardless of the type of marketing campaign, it’s size or the expense, what you need to do is track each and every one your visitors, every click, the traffic, the conversion rates.
This can be done with free tracking methods available on the Internet. The bottom line is that you need to record every movement, find out exactly where they’re coming from, what works and what doesn’t work, this to be constantly tweaking for better results.
Losing Rapport Failing To Communicate
One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is they fail to communicate. Once they make the sale or service, they lose rapport, appearing like they’re moving on to their next conquest.
Most often, the consumer will only hear from them when it’s time to buy again. What you’ve established is a customer base, and you worked extremely hard to acquire them, but you leave them out in the cold.
You should be spending a portion of your time and marketing budget to retain them, or they’ll leave. So make sure that you have an open dialogue with them on a daily basis, solicit their feedback, respond to their emails in a timely manner, send emails out, just communicate more.
Learn From Making Mistakes
Starting a new marketing campaign often feels like you’re throwing stuff at the wall, and seeing what sticks. You’ll also never find out until you try.
All you’re wanting is to improve your marketing results, to make more money while spending less advertising dollars, so why not learn from the mistakes of others, rather than making your own.
To become successful, always be working towards improving your marketing effectiveness. Learn to avoid the most common marketing mistakes, then you’re on your way to improving your ROI.