It’s nearly impossible to please everyone when it comes to marketing. Aside from product, marketing is the most public-facing aspect of a business, and everyone has an opinion.
Since marketing is so open for scrutiny, there is a low threshold for mistakes. But over the course of a decade plus-long marketing career, not to mention a lifelong consumer of things, I’ve noticed there are five major mistakes that marketers tend to make—a lot.
Here is a rundown:
Lack of personalization
We—the consumer—expect too much from our marketing these days. There is no way that any marketer worth their salt can get away with no level of personalization.
Take me for instance—I love animals and I am very mindful of what I eat, and I leave many online cues confirming it. Any fast food or hunting ad targeted at me would amount to wasted marketing dollars. And while I may think I’m unique, there are a lot of people out there who are just like me, with the same interests, the same likes, the same behaviors. And that’s how personalization becomes scalable.
Being hyper cautious
I once had an incredibly smart, well-established boss tell me to follow the 80/20 rule. That is, if you feel 80% good about something, hit publish, hit send, launch the product.
I also worked indirectly with someone who spent hours fretting over colors and commas in an internal newsletter. There is no such thing as perfect, and it is far better something goes out with minor flaws than never seeing the light of day. Sometimes it’s hard to bite the bullet but remember that while you’re waiting, the market is passing you.
Overplanning
Don’t plan for a full FY if you can help it. Forecast an approximate annual and quarterly budget, but try your hardest to react in real-time to the market. The marketing technology landscape is shifting so rapidly that there’s no telling what new software is about to make an appearance or what trends are set to emerge, that could take your marketing to the next level.
Having too many holes in data
Oftentimes marketers have a ton of customer data, but it’s too spotty to do much with. Don’t overlook your loyalty database, your social data, transactional or email database—when combined and looked at holistically, that data becomes extremely valuable “performance enhancing” data. In order to effectively market, your data should be as robust as you can possibly get it.
Not choosing the right channels
When I’m on Facebook, I’m in a totally different mindset than when I’m on LinkedIn. Typically, B2C marketers should put their paid ad budgets toward Facebook and Twitter, and B2B marketers should focus on LinkedIn. The overlap and the exception? Email. Email marketing is seeing a renaissance and everyone should be ready to be marketed to—hopefully with proper personalization—on email.
What other mistakes have you seen marketers make? What mistakes have you made yourself?
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