Red Frog, Inc.

by Charlie Cook

Have you ever sent out a sales letter and received little or no response, or put up a web site and found hardly anyone visiting it. Have you worked hard on an article only to find that few people read it and even fewer contacted you as a result?

Let's be honest; everyone makes mistakes. The difference between the winners and the losers in business is that winners recognize their mistakes and avoid making the same blunder again. Each time you can recognize a marketing mistake and correct it your marketing will be that much better.

Marketing experts got that way by working full time at making more marketing mistakes than you can imagine and then learning from them. Common marketing missteps include:

* Starting your marketing with a focus on your credentials, products and services instead of on client problems.

* Using a label to describe what you do instead of a "meme" or value positioning statement that tells prospects which problems you solve in a sentence or less.

* Developing a tagline, article title or web page title without taking the time to discover which words will attract your clients.

* Wasting time on pushing information about yourself out to prospects instead of pulling them in with ideas they are interested in.

* Not providing prospects with a free offer to get their contact information.

* Forgetting to regularly follow up with prospects.

* Building a web site without a clear step-by-step map of how you will attract visitors to the site, and what you want them do once they visit your site.

* Not having offers and strategies to turn prospects into clients and clients into repeat clients and sources of referrals.

If you've made any of the above marketing mistakes, you're not alone. But if you want to grow your business, don't repeat these blunders again and again. If you're not getting the results you want, look for a new strategy, modify your tactics and change your materials.

Strategy - Base your marketing on a clear set of principles. Have a clearly defined strategy and marketing plan. Use approaches that work for independent professionals and small business.

Tactics - Plan your marketing so its organized and individual efforts are additive and contribute to building your business.

Materials - Make sure individual marketing pieces resonate with your target market, get their attention and move them to the action you want them to take.

Fix your marketing tactics and materials by testing ideas, keeping the ones that work and throwing out the ones that don't. If you self published a book, but its not flying off the shelves, identify the variables that could be affecting sales.

It may be the book's title, the sales letter, or the price and bonus offers. Pick one of these and make some changes. Test a different title, rewrite your sales letter, or the price and bonus offers and see what happens.

Depending on your timeline and goals, you may want to avoid making all the marketing mistakes on your own, and get expert advice from someone who has made or seen most of the mistakes before.

In the process of growing your business you're bound to make marketing missteps. The more you make, identify and learn from the faster your marketing will improve and the more clients you will attract.

2003 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners who are struggling to attract more clients and grow their businesses. To get the free marketing guide, '7 Steps to Get More Clients and Grow Your Business' visit www.charliecook.net or write ccook@charliecook.net