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The Biggest Marketing Mistake & How You Can Avoid It

Guest post by: Will Turner

Article Overview: Learn what you need to do to avoid the biggest marketing mistake.

The Biggest Marketing Mistake & How You Can Avoid It

I recently heard a definition of marketing as “getting people to come to you.” To get people to come to your door, so to speak, you can implement lots of strategies. Most of these are centered on communicating your unique value to the right audience. It can be as simple as sending out a pre-approach letter to warm up a sales call or putting together an elaborate advertising or direct mail program.

Regardless of whether you’re paying a few cents or mega-dollars on your marketing communication, the most common mistake is that people “WEE-WEE” all over their prospects. They put together letters or brochures that tell the prospect that “We do this… and we do that…and we are wonderful…we have lots of experience…we have the best customer service and we, we, we…”

Guess what? No one likes to be “We’d” on. Instead of “weing” on your prospects, you need to look at and understand the benefits you offer to prospects. So flip your perspective to what’s important to your end user. It’s a subtle difference that will have a huge impact on your marketing effectiveness.

The fix is simple, look through your marketing pieces and purge the “we’s.” Instead of writing, “We’ve got 25 years as a leader in our industry,” write something that will communicate the same message but state it in a way that the reader sees value in. Something like, “You’ll have peace of mind knowing our 25 years of experience will…”

I was recently helping a client with a pre-approach letter. She was sending out letters to prospects as a way to warm up the follow-up call to get a sales appointment. Like many salespeople, she found some old letters that her boss had written and updated them to make them her own. Unfortunately, the boss hadn’t gotten any expert advice and he had made the typical mistakes that most people make when writing letters.

One of the biggest mistakes he made was his bulleted list of what his company could provide the recipient of the letter. It was all about the company. With a shift in perspective, we were able to rewrite the letter and make it all about the benefits the recipient would receive. The simplest way to go through that conversion process is to ask the right question. When you see a “we” statement, ask the question, “Why is that important to our clients?” The answer will give you the replacement statement you need to write instead.

Remember, your audience is always listening to the same radio station, WIIFM – What’s In It For Me. You need to be tuned in their station as well. If you don’t, you better be prepared for your competitors to be.

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