The Biggest Marketing Mistake & How You Can Avoid It
The Biggest Marketing Mistake & How You Can Avoid It
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.
The Biggest Marketing Mistake How You Can Avoid It - To learn more about this author, visit Will Turner's Website.
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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.
The Biggest Marketing Mistake How You Can Avoid It - To learn more about this author, visit Will Turner's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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