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The marketing function is the lifeline to business continuity and growth, yet many businesses are failing to utilise this valuable tool to its full potential. Fraser Hay has been in the marketing business for many years. He says that time and time again he sees the same barriers preventing potentially great businesses and business owners from reaching their potential. He summarises the four most common reasons why people do not get results from their marketing. Reason One: Verbal programming
Many people suffer from negative conditioning by family, friends, peers, associates and suppliers who have all tried some form of marketing and communicated their poor results. We remember them. We do not forget them. We dwell on them. These negative memories leave long lasting memories and affect our ‘Marketing Blueprint’. They contribute to our negative conditioning and they shape our attitude towards marketing. Reason Two: Modelling
Many business owners actually model their management style on a particular individual. Many life coaches recommend that you model yourself on someone successful in your industry, who has created a successful business, or has found a unique and proven approach.
Why not apply that concept of modelling to your marketing? Find a proven system or process that you see others implementing and working, and apply it to your business. Reason Three: Specific incidents
Remember that one-off, last minute ad that cost you £600 that didn’t generate a single lead? The networking event where you gave out 30 cards and did not receive one phone call? The marketing seminar for which you paid £5K, but where by the time you got home, you had forgotten half of it, and they showed you no real world examples? Remember the mailing list you bought, with 38 per cent outdated information?
We remember these negative experiences. We dwell on them. We replay them over in our minds, time and time again. These negative experiences leave long lasting memories that mould our thinking and affect our ‘Marketing Blueprint’. Reason Four: Working with symptoms
Successful marketing starts with addressing the real marketing issues that are holding you back. No matter what techniques or strategies many people apply - even if they are the right ones -, they usually fail because they are not addressing the real marketing issues or fail to get to the root of the marketing problems. They are only dealing with the symptoms.
The same four reasons above are probably preventing your prospects from doing business with you. What if they may have received verbal conditioning about you, your products or your brand? They may have received verbal conditioning for years about a negative experience someone had with products or services like yours.
What if your prospects are searching for a mentor, or someone on whom to model their business, their process or their systems? You might be the one they are looking for and they just have not found you yet.
Perhaps they have had a bad experience personally with one of your competitors. This could have quite an impact on their ‘blue print’ and perceptions of others, i.e. you, in the same industry.
What if they simply cannot see the wood for the trees, are bogged down in dealing with the symptoms of the problems that you can fix or address head on, but they just do not realise it yet.
One, some or all of the reasons may well apply to your business.
Your prospects need to know that you recognise their problems. More importantly, you need to be able to present your business case and articulate your unique selling point, elevator pitch or core marketing message in such a way that it differentiates you from your competitors.
As a general statement, if more business and website owners knew the best methods to find, locate, qualify and convert more leads online and offline, it would result in more leads, enquiries, prospects, sales and referrals and a greater, faster growth for their business too.
Many just need a real competitive advantage and by applying simple, proven, methods, the marketing of their products and services would not be a negative experience. Would it not be great if each day you generated hungry prospects eager to want to work with you?
Think of the positive impact that would have on you.
Would it not be great if those prospective clients converted into real enthusiastic clients that recognise and pay you what your worth?
They all should. Quite often marketing can be a struggle for many business owners, however, cutting corners lowering their price, thus eating into their margin, just to win the sale.
Successful marketing starts by identifying what you need to do and analysing why people are attracted to you. It's simple. You need to identify what's wrong with your marketing now.
You need to analyse exactly: - Who your prospective clients really are
- The real problems and issues they are experiencing/facing,
- How you can help them with the solution you have to offer
- The best way for you to state your case why they should select you
- How you will get your marketing message out to your target audience
You need to be aware of the negative programming that your prospects may already have experienced, the affect it has had on their ‘marketing blueprint’ and that it may be preventing them from doing business with you.
You need to remind them that marketing is all about satisfying needs, help them to identify those needs, and state your best business case on why they should be doing business with you.
Fraser J. Hay is a multi-award winning Scottish entrepreneur, author and lead generation coach. Related links
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