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If you had told me ten years ago that marketing was the most important skill for entrepreneurial success, I would have laughed at you. However, over a decade of my own entrepreneurial ups (and major downs), in addition to advising thousands of client companies from zero to profitability, I’ve surrendered to the reality that marketing is the most crucial non-negotiable skill any businesskinda.com should have. master to succeed. After making six figures of my own marketing mistakes, I want to save you time and money by warning you about eight costly mistakes that can ruin your business.
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1. Perfection smells like fish
Whether you’re a perfectionist or just someone looking to put their best foot forward, it’s common sense to polish your marketing content — including customer testimonials — until they shine. The problem? Shiny is not necessarily the reality. When customer testimonials seem too perfect, they can come across as staged (and fake). Believe it or not, that extra round of photoshop and getting rid of their brief stutter could trigger customers’ BS sensor. Perfection smells like fish; real, raw, honest and recognizable testimonials will be much more believable and likely get you more credibility and sales.
Related: Top 5 Not-So-Obvious Social Media Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid
2. Customers can smell this too
I can still remember my throat closing as sweat gathered under each armpit during my first live sales pitch. The objections came in and I cawed like a frightened cricket. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be the only sales pitch I’d flutter with my own confidence-betraying despair. If you get nothing else from this article, remember that desperation repels – and it will likely show in a sales pitch. If you can leverage authentic trust and the knowledge that you’ll be fine with or without the sale, you’re probably about 50% closer to closing it.
3. There is no “belief” in marketing
Most entrepreneurs approach marketing with one of two schools of thought: the first assumes that minimal marketing will generate revenue (since, of course, customers flock to brand-new companies and products). The second assumes that marketing requires firm conviction. In reality, neither is exactly correct.
In reality, marketing shouldn’t be about nagging customers until they finally give in and buy a product. Instead, strategic marketing means finding the off-the-shelf leads that don’t need all that persuasion. If marketing feels like pulling teeth, that’s a good indicator that you might be doing it wrong.
4. These fads can wear out their welcome
Have you ever seen those sales pages that go on for miles, cloaking their prices under a never-ending stream of ambitious fluff? Or how about a lightning-fast series of spammy pop-ups and countdown timers, urging you to jump on the bandwagon and buy before the sale ends? While these tricks may have worked well when they were new (when customers were much less smart), today they’re more likely to frown for all the wrong reasons — even if they’re true. If you annoy your audience by giving in too much to the industry’s marketing standards, it could do your business more harm than good; dare to be different, and sometimes it’s that difference that sells.
Related: 8 Rookie Marketing Mistakes I Made That I Don’t Have To
5. This is more important than you think
Years ago, I hired a marketing team that had me ditch all of my company’s branding for their new color scheme and graphics. It was different, but I wasn’t really sold by it. You know who else was unsold? My target customers. At the time, my company’s product was arguably better than its competitors (more value for a more reasonable price), yet we were bulldozed by a few companies with completely different brand images and messages.
Customers buy from companies and people they like, and branding determines a customer’s first impression of your company. Don’t underestimate the importance of branding and leave it to an external marketing team or as the last item on your pre-launch to-do list.
6. Discounts are rarely the answer
When sales aren’t rolling in as quickly as you’d hoped, it’s easy to fixate on your prices as the problem and resort to lowering them for an easy sales boost. do not – at least not until or unless you know that prices are the problem. As someone who struggles to sell $20 products with influencers and ads and also sold $2000 through a single email, I guarantee you that prices are rarely the reason you don’t sell. Brand sales and big discounts can be part of a strategic campaign, but they shouldn’t be a last resort to compensate for insufficient marketing.
7. These are yours to lose
The most valuable thing customers can offer your business is not their money; it’s their feedback. I can’t tell you how many companies make hundreds of sales before they think to ask for feedback, reviews, testimonials or referrals from customers. Real-world social proof doesn’t have to cost a dime, but it can increase your sales conversion exponentially compared to when you didn’t have one.
You can give customers an incentive to fill out a form after purchase or even require a service fill form before their last service delivery. Doing just that has created a continuous stream of hundreds of fresh, new testimonials for my business, all the time, free and effortless, with a simple Google form.
Related: 9 Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing Your Business Money
8. Timing is everything
Entrepreneurs who don’t understand the correct sales cycle of their product fly blind if they choose to implement or discontinue marketing initiatives. Some products and price points earn a two-day conversion window, while others require two weeks, months, or years. I have a company where we keep leads for two to three years; given our cheap automated marketing, it usually pays off as we got $3,000 in sales after sending our 50th email. If we didn’t understand the conversion period for this product and the price, we might have stopped at our fifth.
Once you understand this, you’ll be able to set reasonable boundaries for how long you want to retain and sell leads, and reframe your sales expectations. Just because a company makes millions doesn’t mean it’s converting leads into sales in milliseconds — most don’t.
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.