David Cooper’s latest ‘Affiliate Avalanche’ newsletter article is titled “4 Reasons Your Marketing Stinks!” [Affiliate Avalanche Newsletter]


David Cooper’s latest ‘Affiliate Avalanche’ newsletter article:

‘4 Reasons Your Marketing Stinks!’

Making marketing mistakes is a common theme among new online business owners. Becoming a marketing whiz can be a sometimes painful and often lengthy process. Many of us have learned marketing lessons through trial and error. There is nothing wrong with that. I believe learning something by doing, even if it’s wrong, provides us with a priceless education. Today I want to talk about some of the more common marketing mistakes that are made and how you can avoid them.

Problem #1: Lack of Target Market Definition

Your target market is the group of people you are trying to sell your products and services to. If you don’t define who your target market is, or you try to make your target market to big, you are going to have a hard time convincing your prospective customers to buy.

Here is an example, lets say that you are a direct sales consultant for a cosmetics company. Now you may think this is easy, your main target market is women. You would be only partially correct. The target market “women” is way too general, and while yes women may make up a good percentage of the target market, not all women wear cosmetics.

In order to find out who your target market actually is you need to ask yourself some questions. Who wants my products or services? Why do they want my products or service? You want to be as specific possible when you target your market. Determine what age group you are going to market to, where do they live, what are their hobbies, what is their income level, marital status, etc. The more you know about your potential market and customers the more you will improve your marketing efforts.

Problem #2: Sending Confusing Marketing Messages

Once you have defined your target market you have to create your marketing message.

Your marketing message is what is going to grab the eyeballs of your potential customers and tell them why they should be doing business with you or using your products and services.

Your marketing message should detail how you can solve their problems, or alleviate their fears, or make their life easier. It should also offer the benefits the potential customer will receive from choosing your product or service over that of the competition.

Problem #3: Not Getting Feedback from Your Market

Whenever you implement a marketing technique or strategy you should always test it out on a small market sample and ask for feedback from your test group before diving in unchartered waters head first. Yes, it can be a solid pain in the rump and yes it will be a little more time consuming, but it is much better to invest some time and money into one bad advertisement than dumping a whole boat load of time and money into a terrible ad campaign!

Problem #4: Lack of Consistency

So many marketers miss the boat when it comes to creating brand recognition. Using a simple consistent theme and feel in all of your marketing techniques is always a good move. Why? Because this will help you to create brand recognition. Using similar colors, fonts in your ads, website, and blog design will help you develop a more recognizable brand. Any graphics that you use in any of your marketing pieces should be consistent with your overall marketing message.

Look at Nike. Now we all know that Nike is selling athletic apparel and footwear. Nike’s marketing is filled with images of athletes pushing themselves to their limits. It goes perfectly with their slogan of “Just Do It”.

The bottom line is this. Marketing is the one thing in your business that should not be hit or miss. Yes, it’s okay to make the occasional mistake. We’ve all made mistakes. Mistakes aren’t permanent and they only become fatal to your business when you don’t learn the lessons the mistake has taught you.

The really important thing about marketing is this. Always keep learning, stay on the cutting edge of what is going on in your market, and correct mistakes as quickly as possible after they occur.

David Cooper

www.affiliateavalanche.com

Affiliate Avalanche Newsletter

*IMNewswatch would like to thank David Cooper for granting permission to reprint the latest ‘Affiliate Avalanche’ newsletter.

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