Reasons marketing fails

One way to make sure our marketing programmes are really effective is by understanding the things that don’t work. These (in no particular order) are a few of the basic mistakes we come across all the time.

1. Weak positioning

You look exactly the same as your competitors and you offer the same user benefits - so why should any customers come to you? Differentiation is the key, you have to be different or better than your competition, otherwise you’ll have to be cheaper.

2. No clear customer benefit

This might sound obvious but you must sell something that people want. That means getting close to your potential customers, finding out the problems they have and how you can solve them. Don’t make products or services just because you find it easy or fun - customers buy for their reasons, not yours.

3. Sales inaction

Most problems smaller companies have in winning customers are transactional - things like identifying potential customers, making contact with them, getting their attention and winning orders. A new brochure is great, it might even be essential, but you won’t win business sitting on your backside.

4. Inconsistent messages

If you are not consistent and regular in how you promote your business then the odds are that you will not succeed. Your key messages and the way you communicate them has to be consistent.

5. Keep it simple

We have an amazing ability to complicate things without realising that simplicity, clarity, and focus bring the greatest rewards. A recent EU publication on the marketing of potatoes contains 28,941 words, while Winston’s Churchill’s "fight them on the beaches" speech had fewer than 4,000 and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address a mere 279. Which do you think had the most impact?

6. Lack of commitment

If you don’t deliver your product or service well or you really don’t believe in it, then you definitely won’t succeed. Your business must commit the appropriate resources and effort to do whatever it takes to make your product or service work and to keep your customer promises.

For a strategic approach to growing your business call Appleberry on 01244 671 300