Viva’s Blog: 15 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in ’15

Marketing mistakes can be costly and hurt a company’s brand. Avoid wasting time and money by learning from others’ missteps.

Here are 15 common marketing mistakes to avoid in 2015:

Mistake #1:  Hiring your friend’s advertising agency.
Your company’s needs are unique. An agency that’s great at retail may not be optimal for a manufacturer with global customers. Find an agency that’s right for your specific needs.

Mistake #2:  Getting seduced by the new.
Social media is pitched as a surefire way to build a brand. The space is highly fragmented and new products are being introduced nearly monthly. Adding tactics to your marketing plan should be based on your customers’ media consumption habits, not your excitement over the latest shiny object.

Mistake #3:  Developing marketing materials that aren’t consistent.
Repurpose, don’t recreate. That’s how you build a brand quickly and cost effectively.

Mistake #4:  Advertising without testing.
If you don’t measure results to determine if an ad campaign is effective, how will you know if you should repeat it?

Mistake #5:  Using a low bar when hiring a marketing professional.
Use the same discipline that you apply when you recruit a CFO or top engineer. Don’t just hire your friend’s son or daughter.

Mistake #6:  Talking about yourself.
Ever receive an email blast from a company announcing their new website?  Zzzzzzz…  Today’s selfie-snapchat-140-character-multi-tasking consumers don’t really care about what’s new with you. They engage with a brand when its messaging resonates with them.

Mistake #7:  Forgetting your current customers.
Do your customers know how much you appreciate them? You know this: long-term customers are the best sources of referrals and keeping a customer costs roughly 10% of what it takes to acquire a new one.

Mistake #8:  Telling the whole story.
Don’t tell the whole story. If you include everything, it makes nothing important.

Mistake #9:  Forgetting the call-to-action.
When a prospect sees your ad or visits your website, what do you want them to do? Request information? Order now? Subscribe to a newsletter? Without a call-to-action, people don’t know what to do with the information you’ve provided. Forgetting the call-to-action in an ad or on your website is like ending a sales call without asking for the sale.

Mistake #10:  Ignoring SEO.
You’ve created content and posted it across multiple online outlets. That’s great. But are you developing content that’s unique, high quality and relevant to your audience? Are you using the keywords they’d use to search for the information?

Mistake #11:  Marketing without knowing why you’re special.
How can you pick a headline without knowing why your product or service delights people? Conduct research first, then develop ads.

Mistake #12:  Using mass messages.
Go niche, not mass. Ads that attempt to talk to everyone speak to no one. This is the age of customization. Online tools allow us to place targeted ads with unique messages. Consumers expect to be spoken to as if they are the only ones on the planet.

Mistake #13:  Targeting yourself instead of your customer.
How do you make decisions regarding ads, packaging and your website? Hope you and your colleagues don’t decide based on what you like. Talk to your customers and build your marketing around them and their needs.

Mistake #14:  Hiding your personality.
Brand personality matters. Whether you’re selling financial services, food or software, avoid looking and sounding like other companies vying for your prospects’ attention.

Mistake #15:  Believing more is better.
One remarkable advertising campaign is worth far more than many mediocre programs.

Marketing can deliver amazing, measurable results when done correctly. Avoiding these mistakes can save you time and money and help build your brand faster.

Read more Viva’s Blogs at www.VivaLaBrand.com