THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF MARKETING
Craig Shields, president, Direct Marketing Agency, Inc., Irvine, CA, recently identified seven categories of basic mistakes that make marketing expensive, wasteful, and hard to quantify:
1. No comprehensive database. It is wise to mail only to high potential prospects. Spend more time at the outset defining and scaling down your database to hit only those prospects with the highest buying potential.
2. No market research. Talk and look to users and potential users for the message they really want to hear. All advertising/marketing programs should be rooted in marketing research.
3. Blind faith in advertising. Advertising is not the 'end-all.' You need to look at the purpose as it is stated in the marketing plan - do you want to accomplish name-awareness or sales? Every time prospects hear from you, they need to hear exactly what you want them to hear.
4. No quality in marketing. Put yourself in the receiver's position - would you respond? Ideally, you need the ability to overcome junk mail.
5. Believing that lead generation is enough. You need the flow to finish. Integrate steps with adequate preparation of the sales force.
6. Not using proper feedback. If the prospect doesn't buy, find out why. Create a feedback loop by understanding what messages work, which do not, and why.
7. Repeating the same mistakes twice. Use stats/reports, as well as salespersons' feedback, to learn from and avoid repeating failed efforts.