There’s a common characteristic ABSENT among the vast majority of business owners I meet: laziness. I mean, the last thing you can accuse these entrepreneurs of is being lazy.
To their credit, they are hustling. Everyday. And they are investing. They network, market, advertise, and try to make sense of the conflicting and complex “solutions” being marketed to them day in and day out.
As they say,
“Any fool can make the simple, complicated.
It takes a genius to make the complicated, simple.”
I don’t feign to be any sort of genius, but my goal is ALWAYS simplicity. And, to my continued shock and frustration, I see business owners PERSIST in making this HUGE mistake with their marketing… This #1 mistake wastes their ad dollars, but WORSE: it gives them a false sense that something is going to happen. They pay and then wait…. losing momentum and time. Both critically unacceptable in the life of a self-bosser. So, here it is: The # 1 Mistake 98% of business owners (STILL) make in their marketing:
They market without a plan because they are STILL operating under the false notion that there’s some value in “getting their name out there.” They persist in this belief regardless of the ample and very personal evidence to the contrary.
They don’t know (exactly) who they’re targeting, and what specific action they want that market to take.
To make matters worse, they typically advertise ONLY for buyers — leaving out about 93 – 98% of the market — and NEVER reaching the 40 – 60% that aren’t buying today, but want more information for later.
And they don’t train their staff regarding the marketing their doing, so they are prepared to convert the leads that do come in.
What SHOULD go into every paid marketing and advertising decision isn’t appropriate for a simple blog post. BUT, let’s start with this: Don’t go to market without a plan. At a minimum, you should know:
- WHY you’re marketing where you’re marketing,
- WHY you’re saying what you’re saying,
- WHO’s attention you are trying to get, and
- WHAT specific action you want that “WHO” to take.
