Do you ever wake up in the dead of the night wondering if you had a typo in your subject line? Or maybe you find yourself being haunted by the ghost of failed campaigns past? If so, you might be a marketer. And let’s face it, marketing can be a bit scary at times. One wrong move could cause you to lose your customers forever. Your nightmares of downward trending graphs and 0 likes on your latest social post could quickly become a reality. So on the most spooky of days, let’s take a look at 3 common marketing mishaps and get tips on avoiding them. After all, nobody wants to get ghosted by their clients!
For marketers there is a ton of pressure to constantly bring in new leads and customers, so much so that often times we forget to give our current customers some TLC! And considering that 80% of your business comes from existing customers (rather than new business), that can definitely be a scary mistake to make!
There are a few ways to show the love to your current customers, and since you’ve done business with them before and have their contact information, that allows you to send highly targeted communications. A “We’ve missed you!” email that also includes a coupon can be very effective in generating repeat business. Mailers that include a coupon or a loyalty gift are another great way to stay top of mind with existing customers and clients. And although retention can be pricey, it will cost you 5 times more to sell to a new customer than to sell to an existing one! When it comes to lead generation, make sure you aren’t getting tunnel vision.
We get it! You work for an awesome company doing a bunch of awesome things and you just want to tell anyone who will listen all about it. And although enthusiasm for your brand and product (or service) is encouraged, you should be careful of falling into the “information overload” trap. Rather than trying to communicate everything, you should instead focus on what truly differentiates you from your competitors and make sure that is the focus of your communication strategy.
Your USP (unique selling proposition) should be used in every piece of marketing material and should be built into the foundation of your business. So, let’s take your website homepage as an example. Within 60 seconds of browsing, a new customer coming to your website should know A) what product and service your company provides, and B) why you are different from your competitors. When it comes to communication, less is more! So make sure you aren’t scaring away your customers with too much information.
They say you should learn from your mistakes, but what’s even better is learning from other’s mistakes! If you aren’t keeping tabs on your competitors you are missing out on a huge opportunity to find out what works and what doesn’t. Is there a campaign they ran on their social channels that got a ton of engagement? Or maybe an email they sent out with a huge discount on their product or service? Maybe they ran a deal once and never did it again, and you can infer that the campaign was unsuccessful. Or on the flip side, if your competitors are repeating the same campaign every month then they are probably finding success with that tactic. By monitoring your competitors you’ll be able to see what works and what doesn’t (without having to fail yourself!).
The marketing world can be a scary place, but the key is to get back up and try try again when you fail. Also, it’s impossible to be an expert in everything, so make sure you build up a good network and lean on the expertise of others if you are feeling spooked. At Boundless, we happen to be proficient in all things branded merchandise and are happy to help with all of your needs.
So good luck to all you marketing monsters out there and Happy Halloween from all of us at Boundless!