Judging the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is easy – they're either producing results or they're not. If you're less than thrilled with your current ROI, here are five fixable mistakes to help boost results.
Judging the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is easy – they're either producing results or they're not. If you're less than thrilled with your current ROI, here are five fixable mistakes to boost your results:
Mistake Number 1: Hyping product features instead of benefits. Instead of “XYZ product has a 64-gigabyte overdrive capacity,” try “You'll cut your payroll processing time in half!” What sounds more compelling to you? Remember...it's not all about you, but rather “what's in it for me?”
Mistake Number 2: Not clearly stating your USP. Why should I buy from you instead of your competition? That's the essence of your Unique Selling Proposition. Whether you're competing on price, service or responsiveness, make sure the “why buy” reason comes through consistently in every piece of promotion you create.
Mistake Number 3: Not identifying your customers' needs. Designing your USP around the needs of your customer is a smart strategy. How do you find out? Ask! It's called identifying their pain. You may think price is the driving factor when what your customer really wants is reliability. Once you've ID'd the pain, focus on what your business can do to fix the boo-boo.
Mistake Number 4: Making it difficult to do business with you. Is every single person in your company driven by customer satisfaction? Are phones answered promptly, or do customers get dropped into voicemail hell? Try calling your main number or customer service center to test the level of success or frustration your customers face daily. Is contact information easy to find on your website? If you make someone work for it – they won't.
Mistake Number 5: Not recognizing what works.then sticking with it. How do you know which ad, headline or offer most appeals to customers? By putting them all to the test. Rather than running the same ad for three weeks, why not run three similar ads with slightly different offers and measure which draws better? Or split your marketing dollars between print and direct mail to see which produces better results. And don't expect the phone to ring off the hook with just one ad. It takes up to seven exposures to make an impression on a potential buyer. If you bail out at Week 6, you're cutting short your chances for a sale.
See yourself in any of the above? Thankfully, they're all relatively quick fixes – and well worth the investment for more effective marketing.
About the Author
A copywriter by trade, Lisa Fahoury helps businesses make the most of their marketing dollars. Her firm, New Jersey-based Fahoury Ink, provides creative copywriting, design & marketing services.