Marketing myths that might be holding your business back

Go ahead -- try to sell me on why your marketing is just fine the way it is. Prove that the collection of disjointed tactics your company calls marketing works. Better yet, tell me why it's ok for you to think that any marketing is better than doing nothing.

Go ahead, sell me.

Maybe you’ve always done it this way and don’t think it makes sense to change anything. Or, you consider marketing as a luxury you can’t afford. Perhaps it’s a belief system that places the emphasis on face-to-face selling over marketing and that’s where your money goes.

“It’s just the best way for us to do it.” Come on, sell me.

Marketing myths and deep-rooted habits may be hurting your bottom line.

Activities that worked nicely in the past may not be serving you as well now. If you’ve stuck to the same tactics for a long time, it’s time to reconsider what you’re doing.

Are your activities motivating more people to buy more from you? Take a step back and assess your approach to engaging potential buyers and selling them on your products or services. Make sure it meets the acid test of getting more return on your investment.

If you don’t place much value in marketing because what you’ve done in the past has failed to meet your expectations, then it’s time to take a different approach -- now.

Doing the same marketing activities over and over leads to the same result. Understand what marketing myths have held you back. Break old habits.

Advertising is marketing. Twitter is marketing. A Website is marketing. Your audience isn’t one-dimensional and needs to be reached in different ways. There is no single silver bullet. Use an approach with a full complement of tactics to fit your strategy; when they work together, that’s marketing. Each element should drive traffic to your ultimate target -- for instance, your website for purchases or email newsletter sign-up and social media for awareness and engagement. Ask your customers which channels they use and chose the three or four activities that will most effectively help you reach your goals. Be consistent across each in terms of its regular use, messaging and keywords, as well as look and feel. Create a multi-dimension marketing strategy. In the long run it’ll actually be more effective and budget friendly.

Sales people make it happen without marketing’s help. Don't confuse marketing with sales support. The first job of marketing is to make sure that sales people never need to make a cold call by delivering leads to them. Creating awareness, generating demand, and differentiating brands is how companies sell their products and services. Next, marketing develops strategies, tactics, activities, and materials to help your sales teams nurture and move prospects through the customer buying cycle. In other words, marketers are focused on sales too, providing value through the entire sales process. Your marketing collateral needs to answer the questions buyers are asking. That’s more than just providing great content; deliver the right content at the right time. It’s the just-in-time education your prospects want to make a buying decision in your favor.

Tracking and measuring marketing is for wimps. At one end you track the number of leads in your sales funnel and at the other end, your revenue. Without detailing what happens in between, measuring the success or failure of your marketing efforts is only guesswork. Determining the direct impact of a particular channel or tactic on lead generation and sales conversions will allow you to improve what you do. Tracking tools abound to measure just about any metric, yet you only need a few of each. It just depends on what your goals are and how you define success. As an example, let’s say that an email newsletter is central to the way you nurture, educate, and make offers. Then use the built-in analytic capabilities of your email service provider to measure how many recipients actually opened the email, who clicked which link, and how many took action. This is how you get a great return on your marketing investment.

You can harness the powerful competitive advantage that great marketing will give you. Smart marketing will create a significant return on your investment.

Great marketing will do far more than get your company publicity. More importantly, you’ll gain the right type of exposure with the perfect audience for your business. And you’ll close more sales -- even with a modest marketing budget.

What marketing myths and old habits are you ready to bust?

Ron Stein is President of FastPath Marketing (www.marketing-strategies-guide.com) and the author of the Rapid Impact Marketing & Selling Playbook. As a speaker, coach, and consultant he works with small business owners helping them to accelerate the path between their vision and the actions needed to reach, win, and keep customers. Ron is the creator of the FastPath to More Customers Now! 7-step marketing system based on more than twenty years as a successful business owner, corporate CEO, business development executive, and salesman. He is also a mentor at two nationally recognized business accelerators. Ron offers one-on-one and small group mentoring, conducts seminars, and consults. He can be reached at 727-398-1855 or Ron@FastPathMarketing.com.