The Dirty Dozen – Part 1
Today we welcome back Malcolm Owens. With experience as both a small business owner and in senior management in large corporates, Malcolm has a unique perspective from both sides of the tracks. Today he shares the fruits of his two decades in marketing to highlight the most common marketing mistakes made by small businesses.
As the CEO of a large Australian company (with 20 years’ experience marketing for high profile companies including Black & Decker, adidas and Nike) and an entrepreneur with several successful ventures, I’ve been fortunate to experience all facets of business development and marketing success.
The time has come to share the 12 most common marketing mistakes made by small business, and what to do about it.
Why? Because I’m sick of the very average service I receive as a consumer and the constant complaints from many business owners about their inability to make their business work. I believe this Small Business Owner blog is the ideal medium to get the word out.
For those whowant to be successful, here are some specific, easy-to-follow marketing strategies that apply to any product, service or business that will give you results in 60 days or less. Strategies that I will bet you aren’t using now – really practical ideals that will make you money.
It’s really easy to create an extraordinary business that’s exciting, profitable and fun. Unfortunately, many small businesses continue doing things the same old way and hope they’ll get a different result. It just doesn’t happen.
As a result, their business fails to provide the return they hope for. It’s not about effort or commitment, because most business people have that in spades - it’s about understanding and applying the most effective and proven strategies. No one expects you to be an expert in accounting or finance just because you run a business, and marketing is the same.
Over the years I’ve worked with such a wide variety of businesses and I have identified some common mistakes that limit a business from growing and increasing profits.
Mistake 1: Marketing to everyone
You cannot be all things to all people. You have no hope of marketing your product or service to everyone, even if you think they all need it. Many businesses spread their marketing so wide that they barely make an impact.
Understand where your business comes from, who your customers are, what your product or service offers and who it appeals to. Create a customer profile and then you’ll have a target for your marketing.
By focusing on your key target market or niche, you’re able to connect with these people at a much higher level and speak directly to them in terms that they understand and relate to. All in a way that will make them sit up and take notice of your business and offer. It’s called ‘fish where the fish are’ and that’s the power of target marketing.
Mistake 2: Failing to have a USP
A USP or Unique Selling Proposition is what differentiates your business from your competitors in the minds of your customers and prospects.
Your USP is found in your business – you just need to articulate it in a way that makes you stand out from the crowd. How can you expect prospects to choose you over any of your competitors if they can’t quickly and easily see or understand what it is that makes you so unique?
If you’re viewed by your customers in the same way as your competitors, the only criteria they have to judge you on is price. Price is not a USP because your competitors can always match or undercut your pricing (not unique) and price wars are the quickest way to destroy a business.
As soon as you create and market your USP, you lift your business out of the price race and into the realm of higher prices and loyal customers who identify with you.
Mistake 3: Failing to prepare for success
Preparation is crucial to success yet so few business owners actually plan out their marketing approach. They run an ad here or send a letter there without any structured plan for follow up or development. Perhaps they would be more inclined to if they were getting the results. Usually the ads and letters are so poorly written that it would be a miracle if they generated a response.
It’s extremely rare to see one-off sales letters, fliers or other lead generating device tool that even come close to being effective. You must build the foundations step by step, and make it better than the competition.
The key difference is your content. The headline, a strong offer, a testimonial, an order mechanism, link to a web site or a simple invitation to trial, come in or seek further information. Solid preparation, planning and testing will ensure that your offer is successful.
Mistake 4 – Not converting features into benefits
Customers buy benefits, not features. Most people know this but when it comes to advertising and promotion they persist in selling features.
Working out the features of your product or service is very easy but does take some thought. Simply divide a page by drawing a line down the middle and write all the features down on the left and the corresponding benefit on the right.
Still having trouble? Try the ‘which means that’ connector. Brand X washing powder now has enzyme power for whiter whites (feature) ‘which means that’ your shirts look better and will last longer (benefit).
This simple process of defining benefits adds clarity to the process of writing effective ads and understanding who your target market is and what they’re really buying.
Mistake 5 – Limiting your marketing to just one or two activities
Many small business people complain about the lack of business generated by their marketing, but on closer examination we find that they’ve run just one or two ads, often in the wrong publication.
Think of the potential if you use five or 10 different business building strategies in a focused and coordinated approach. The more business building tools you use, the more money you will generate. These include:
1. Focusing on your existing customers first
2. Writing to your customers
3. Promoting your Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.)
4. Producing ads that sell (most don’t)
5. Harnessing the power of referrals
6. Risk reversal
7. Using host beneficiary relationships
8. Making the most of loyalty marketing
9. Working the back end – selling more to your existing customers
10. Do what the best companies do
11. Instigate a local area marketing program
12. Know your target market and promote directly to them
13. Branding your business
14. How to increase your prices without losing business
15. Using post cards to beat the junk mail blues
16. Ensuring your corporate attire is sending the right message
17. Exceed your customers expectations
18. Get that second order
19. Sales promotions and joint ventures
20. Beating the big players at their own game
These are just 20 out of the hundreds of options available - and remember, very few business owners would be doing even one of them!
That’s all for this time. Next Tuesday we’ll look at the next seven marketing mistakes and how to solve them to complete your ‘power arsenal’ of marketing strategies to destroy the competition!
Malcolm Owens, www.thesuccesssurfer.com
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Ripper stuff, Malcolm! You’re a jewel in the Small Business Owner crown and I’m delighted at your return in force. Readers would be well advised to check out your bbook. In short, I tips me ‘at ter yer!
Feel free to ask Malcolm any questions you have through these comments – despite being in Hong Kong he’ll be online throughout the day (stellar effort Malcolm, what dedication to SBO!).
You might also like to check out Malcolm’s book ‘100 Quickest and Easiest Ways to Grow Your Business’ at http://www.thesuccesssurfer.com
– just click on the image of the book!
Hi Malcolm,
Don’t they have TVs in Hong Kong Motels mate? :- )
Butt Seriously…
What immediately stood out for me was “Failing to prepare for success”.
I was about 33 when I found out I had a morbid fear of success (I don’t want to get into another existential debate about what ’success’ is…I use it here in the ‘mainstream’ sense which to me looks like ‘financial’; which of course aptly translates into having a ‘power arsenal’)…Obviously, I still have this fear as it leapt out upon reading your article…but over the years I’ve endeavoured to at least try to deal with it. I have had some success (pun intended :- P). I am now less afraid of my fear and therefore better able to work with it and at times even beyond it.
For me starting my own small business is, in and of itself, a statement that I’m willing to try to explore ’success’ and go beyond my fear of it. But when my car broke down the other day on the way to see my ‘byoootiful’ new Wood-Fired Oven for the first time, I realised that I have some way to go…but it’s early days and I’m not dead yet :- )
My ‘problem’ seems to be that I value people’s feelings and my relationships with them more than anything else…I remember when I first started sellling. I was a classic example of the salesman that made a lot of friends but not much money. It is difficult for me to rationalise actions solely aimed at producing money. I suppose that is why so many of my comments here seem slanted toward ‘humanising’ the way we do business. Perhaps one day I’ll find the right balance.
In the meantime and in the spirit of good ol’ Napoleon Hill ( http://www.naphill.org/ ), I’m here because I’ve found a place where I’m in the company of people that have either attained a measure of success or aspire to it (among many other benefitial reasons)…and the perspectives and experience you offer freely I greatly appreciate.
Geez! I just read what I wrote! It was so…ummm…nice? :- /
Did I mention that I also really enjoy giving you a hard time almost as much as your retorts? :- )
I promise I’ll be much more antagonistic from here on ;- P
I look forward to more and to next week’s episode of ‘Competition destruction’ :- )
Cheers
Stephen G
Hi guys and thanks for the kind words. I’m no longer in Hong Kong and have just checked into my Villa at the Anantara Resort in Phuket for a Gaggenau conference. This is the first place I have stayed that every Villa has a private pool and spa and a Sala that extends out over the water. The Spa is filling and I have booked my massage…….
Fear of success is in itself not a bad thing if you redefine the fear as an energy that you can then harness for getting off the couch and getting it done. You need to assess what you are scared of and address the specific reasons – a common one is – if I do and fail then all is lost but if I don’t actually do then I can’t fail and the dream burns on. Unfortunately it will get to the point where you will self combust!
In regard to valuing people’s feelings why would that ever stop you being a success? Quite the contrary and in fact it’s essential. Humanising the way you do business is the ‘secret’ ingredient that so many fail to grasp.
Successful people love what they do. They look honestly at themselves and recognise and acknowledge their passions and follow them whether copywriting or making tofu pizza. If you do what you love it is easy to work as hard as you have to work to succeed. With this mind set and attitude to work your customers will love you and your business!
Ask any kid if his or her parents are happy. They may be business owners or executives who make a comfortable living but really aren’t living all that comfortably. They can be miserable and get through the days and nights with the help of alcohol and Prozac and then are grouchy and make the people around them miserable. Is it worth it? How successful can they be? Fortunately we have more choices than our parents to follow our dreams.
So how is success is defined? Is it money (I’m happy but broke) or something else? Why can’t it be the same thing? It can. I have no problem whose motivation is to earn a lot of money (I’m one of them) to provide well, even lavishly, for themselves and their families. Nor do I have a problem with someone whose motivation is not money. Success is something that every individual must define for themselves. So be a good salesman, a friend, care for your customers, offer great product and service and do it with excitement and enthusiasm and guess what? The money and success will follow AND you will be having a bloody good time as well.
Set your standards well above what anyone would ever set for you. Ask yourself what sort of person do I choose to be? Leave every meeting with another person with them feeling better than when you met them. Embrace your passion, do it well and you will be happy and successful. Now get on with it!
Golly, Malcolm, that massage must have done you some good. This is your most polished comment yet. Have you been self-editing in that private pool of yours?! Good on you!
Think I’d define success as being able to afford to check in to my Villa at the Anantara Resort in Phuket, with the spa filling and the massage booked …… maybe minus the conference : )
Great article Malcolm – looking forward to the next installment.
-Sonia
Thanks Paul and Sonia,
Yes, this place does feel like success on the beach! We had a 2 hour launch last night in what can only be described as a fully blown typhoon. They had a stage set up, the lawn littered with Gaggenau cushions, traditional Thai dancers and musicians and a light show. Then the rain came. It was moved into the nearby restaurant but the night ended well after the storm at the pool bar with the crazy barmen making us all manner of fancy cocktails!
Dear Paul,
You must be the only carbon-based life-form within 30 parsecs that uses the word ‘Golly’ and means it…I love it! :- )
And Yep! I concur Paul…Malcolm’s comment is so shiny I can hardly see a thing!
Dear Malcolm,
So, no TV in the spa ey? :- P
Butt Seriously:
Clearly you have taken the time for a considered response Malcolm which I very much appreciate.
And I think you hit the nail on the head here: “Success is something that every individual must define for themselves.”
I’m interested to know what cultural barriers, if any, are preventing so many from defining ’success’ for themselves? Does our ‘business community’/’socio-economic culture’ effect an influence in a similar fashion to say, ‘Fashion’?
I suppose what I am alluding to here is that as an ‘emergent’ small business owner, what am I really up against when I enter a world where there are lots and lots of people with lots and lots of money and lots and lots of ‘power arsenals’ geared towards ‘destroying the competition’?
Neurolinguistic programming ( http://bit.ly/6OGEC ), is a powerful tool. But is it important for me to know whether the ‘programmer’ got that tool out of their ‘power arsenal’ or out of their ‘first aid kit’?
The very common sense and practical information you have kindly and freely offered for our benefit is just that…very common sense. However, it is not new. And I very much share your frustration that so many talk about it and so few actually apply it. My questions are:
* Why, when such wisdom is so prevalent, do so few act on it?;
* Is there a more effective way of conveying this wisdom that will improve the uptake amongst business people (e.g. ‘incentivising’)?; and
* What happens when a much larger number of people do take up the wisdom, act on it and acquire their own ‘power arsenals’ and the means to ‘destroy the competition’?
Perhaps my fear is not so much of success itself, but of some of its definitions and such ’successful’ people?
In other words, I have already chosen what kind of person I want to be, and this IS me getting on with it. I just haven’t found a way, that doesn’t involve caves or jail, to provide lavishly for myself and/or my family without lots of money.
My small business therfore IS my response, in the context of and with respect to my society and those around me and with integrity to the kind of person I’ve chosen to be…until I find something better.
Your turn…I’m getting a cuppa :- )
Cheers
Stephen G
Hi Stephen and others,
I have taken a day to think about this one! The cultural barriers question is an interesting one and takes us back to the nature or nurture discussion. I certainly believe that we are the result of our upbringing, relationships and how we see ourselves as an ‘authentic’ person in our own eyes. Change comes from belief and that’s why neurolinguistic programming rarely works because unless you really believe in the change then it wont stick.
To answer your questions:
* Why, when such wisdom is so prevalent, do so few act on it?
Because it takes people out of their comfort zone and it’s difficult to change. Rarely does anyone get enough leverage on themselves to make the effort of changing less painful than remaining the same. Take failed diets, giving up smoking, and getting fit as an example. We’re all guilty of starting but not following through. Have a heart attack and suddenly making the change becomes the least painful option. So to answer your question, they don’t want it bad enough.
* Is there a more effective way of conveying this wisdom that will improve the uptake amongst business people (e.g. ‘incentivising’)?;
When the student is ready the teacher appears. You can read all the self improvement books, listen to the CD’s and go to the seminars but unless you are ready and willing to act then nothing will change. Take affirmations – standing in front of the mirror telling yourself that you are a winner 25 times every morning is a waste of time unless you then act like a winner. No free lunch, everything requires effort.
* What happens when a much larger number of people do take up the wisdom, act on it and acquire their own ‘power arsenals’ and the means to ‘destroy the competition’?
That ain’t never gonna happen. This stuff is not new and has been around for a hundred years (Google Wallace Wattles – The Science of Getting Rich 1910 and Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich 1908) read by millions but very few take action.
Tony Robbins talks about taking massive action and if it doesn’t work, try something else until it does. You only fail when you give up.Most give up far too early. Even if everyone did get it right that creates a level of prosperity in the world that also creates a demand. Focus on you – be the best you can be (positive energy) rather than destroying the competition (negative).
OK, a bit off the topic but here goes anyway:
Success comes with self image. That self image is what enables some people to make and honour their commitments while others falter and give up. The ones that maintain their commitments are sustained by a vision of themselves as they would like (plan) to be. The ones that fail rely on progress or approval from others to sustain their momentum. When progress stops so do they. There are very few endeavours that provide constant progress. Plateaus and set backs are normal, giving up is common, blaming others or circumstances prevalent and success is eluded by our own inactions.
When it gets tough, that when most people stop honouring their commitment and give up. That’s when the people with real talent keep going. The ability to make and keep commitments to yourself is critical. This is what separates the successful from the mediocre. People don’t wake up one morning as a brillant sportperson, great musician or inspiring business leader. It requires hard work and dedication to get there and most aren’t prepared to do that. They are the ones that say ‘Wow, he’s lucky or she’s had a dream run’.
Preparation meets opportunity and being prepared to grasp it, run with it and keep going even when last night’s garlic prawn and wallaby pizza has you doubled over in pain. So many successful people have said that they are an overnight success that has taken twenty years to get there. People see the event not the training.
Commitment is sacred to successful people. They never merely go through the motions. They work with intensity and the strength in their commitment is such that rarely let a day or 2 go by without following the actions they know will lead to improvement and success. That catch themselves quickly when they stray (we all do!) from their plan. They almost welcome the challenges because they know that everyone faces difficulties and disappointments at some point. They know that their strong committed response to set backs is one of the things that separates them from the mediocre. They don’t say ‘I’ll try’ or ‘I hope I can’ they say ‘I will’.
Why so much on this? Because I have recently faced a similar fork in the road and had a lot of work to do to get back on the path. Still not 100% there but I WILL. I have catch a plane to Singapore shortly so must sign off here. Hope it helped.
Helped it did indeed…and many more than me I hope :- ) Thanks Malcolm…
If that’s not a great platform upon which to base this, and likely all, future conversations here, I don’t know what is… :- )
Hats off to you good sir…I’m starting to think that I would probably enjoy a few fine meads under a fine oak with you one day…Oh! And a few fine, pain-free, Garlic Prawn & Wallaby Pizzas to accompany of course… :- P
Re: “People see the event not the training.” This reminds of a guy I worked with in on a web project overseas. The publishing company had committed quite a bit of money to their web project. I asked for their marketing plan…it was the first ‘Strategy Free’ Marketing Plan I have ever seen. I said this isn’t a marketing plan it’s a list.
Their entire ‘marketing plan/list’ was unconsiciously predicated on an expectation of replicating the ’successes’ of a few websites that had succeeded in particular areas of web marketing (e.g. blogs, ecommerce, news, other Web2.0 & multimedia leveraging successes).
The timeframe for realising these ’successes’ was projected over 12 months (using ‘web-stats’ – http://bit.ly/2p9BKS – as performance indicators).
Prima facie this might sound reasonable…but none of the ‘researched’ websites (and I use the term ‘researched’ very loosely indeed), were successful in all of the areas mentioned.
However they all had 2 things in common:
1) They had all taken years to achieve their success (up to 9 years); and
2) That success appeared to be founded in shear ‘**organic’ persistance as opposed to any initial detailed conscious planning(**I use the term ‘organic’ here as an unintentional/unexpected version of ‘Viral Marketing’ – http://bit.ly/63gJg – if you use this link, skip the advert that opens first).
Anyway, I reckon I’ve had a fair ’slice’ here…I’ll take a rest and thank you again Malcolm for your thoughful and helpful deliberations…I look forward to seeing what flows from here…
Cheers
Stephen G
Bloody hell. And this is only Part 1! We’ve created quite a forum here. I’m ripping up my bedsheets to make a toga. As young Mr Grace would say, ‘You’ve all done very well!’
Dude! It’s Sunday afternoon…get off the computer! :- )
And thanks for the ‘Toga’ image! :- ~
Cheers
Stephen G
I sell my blood on eBay to pay for Malcolm’s junkets. I’m in the roof, as the slightly thinner air promotes a marginally higher red blood cell count. I hope it’ll be worth an extra bid or two. Sure is hot up here. Lonely, too…
I’ll take 2 litres mate…my cat’s a bit low…it will it run a cat won’t it? :- )
Perhaps if you get a pool of blood to drip through the ceiling, Fonnie will bring you a nice glass of orange juice…you should be able to claim the pool as an ‘expense’… :- )
You little innovator you!:- )
Cheers
Stephen G