The 5 Biggest Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Money

The 5 Biggest Marketing Mistakes That Are Costing You Money

Today, I'm going to share five of the biggest marketing mistakes I see businesses making that are costing them money. If you're making these mistakes, it is not your fault. These are so easy to make, but they are only also very easy to correct. And knowing that you're making them is the first step in being able to actually correct them. Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult. All you need is the right plan. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in today.

The mistakes I'm about to share with you are not tactical. In other words, they are not mistakes that you are making in the daily actions you are taking with your marketing. They are at a strategic level, which, in my opinion, is why they are so so important to correct. If you are making strategic mistakes with your marketing is very likely impacting every marketing action or tactic that you choose to employ. That's why it is so important to fix these mistakes. If you are making them.

Let's dig into that first step in actually being able to correct them, and I'm going to talk about them. And if you're making them, then you can start to take action to actually correct them.

First mistake. You aren't talking about your customer's problems or the results they're looking for. Our customers are looking for one of two things or both. They're looking to solve a problem they have and do not want and or they are looking for a result they want and don't have. When we talk about our customers problems or the results that they want, those are the hooks that bring them in. Those are the hooks that grab their attention and gain their interest, which is how we are going to have the opportunity to even engage and start to have conversations with people. We must talk about the problems they have and don't want or the results they want and don't have. Super important.

Second, you're using too much copy. We're all short on time. We are impatient. Most people are not going to read a long list of copy to get to the end of it. Our copy needs to be easily scanned to get the information we need. And if we want to dig deeper, then we certainly can. Now, I'm not going to tell you as a general rule of thumb, we should probably keep copy to a minimum if we can. There are certainly exceptions to this rule, so I don't want you to start going, "Oh, Tim, what about these long sales pages?" Yes, we have all seen these long sales pages. They can be very effective, but they're also much further in the process in the buyer's journey in most cases. So in general, I think you are better off defaulting to less copy rather than more. We are very impatient. We want to get the answers quickly so that we can move on.

Number three, your offer isn't clear. When I say your offer isn't clear, it means that what you do isn't clear. The products and services you offer may not be clear. Confused people do not buy. So they really need to understand very clearly and simply what you do and what you have to offer. One thing I want to touch on here and add here is that you can only be known for one thing. If you try to be known for a gazillion different things, it's all going to fall flat. So, for example, my company Rialto Marketing, we want to be known for the marketing fundamentals. That's what we help people do. Put the fundamentals in place and then manage and implement their plan going forward. So we want to be known for those fundamentals. Helping you get your target market in place, helping make sure that you have clear, engaging messaging that gains the attention and interest of that target market, and having a plan of how you're going to get that message in front of those people. That's what the marketing fundamentals are. That's what we want to be known for. We're not trying to be known as the best SEO place and the best social media management company or any other marketing thing. It's the marketing fundamentals. You have to choose what you want to be known for because you can only be known for one thing. And I think if you're making this mistake, if you choose what you want to be known for, it becomes much easier to communicate clearly what you do. But if you confuse people, you are going to lose them. Not what we want.

Number four, you haven't given your customers a path. All human beings walk down paths. It is part of our nature. When they land on your website, there needs to be a clear path. What's the path you want them to take? We need to communicate what the path is like if they choose to work with us, what steps are you going to take them through to get from where they currently are, to where they want to be. We need to communicate what that path is. And so many businesses do not communicate what that path looks like clearly. Now, as a marketing company, am I taking a bunch of steps when somebody decides to work with us? Yes, we are. Are we talking about all those steps as the path in the beginning? No, we are not. Because again, we're going to confuse people and just overwhelm them. So we need to focus on those three, four high-level steps that people are going to take when they choose to work with you. That gives them a clear enough path and a clear enough understanding of what steps they need to take to get the results they're looking for. Give your customers a path.

Number five. You're talking too much about yourself. I hate to break it to you. Your customers do not care about you. They care about with them. What's in it for them? What's in it for me? That's all they care about. They care about how you can help them solve the problem they have or get the result they want. That's what they care about. That's what we need to focus on in our marketing messaging. We do not want to talk about ourselves too much. We do need to talk about ourselves enough to position ourselves as the guide. You are a guide, right? Guides are trusted. They have credibility. They show empathy. So you use empathetic statements to let your prospects know that you know what it's like to be in their shoes. To establish credibility and authority, there's all kinds of things you can do. Testimonials, certifications you have, awards you've won, clients you've worked with. All of those are examples of ways you can start to establish credibility and authority. Guides have credibility, and they have empathy. You need to talk about yourself enough to establish yourself as a guide. But if you talk about yourself too much, you are starting to position yourself as the hero. And guess what? Do heroes in stories, are they looking for another hero? No, they are not. They are looking for a guide who has been in their shoes that knows exactly what they need to do. That's why you want to talk only about yourself enough to position yourself as the guide. And the rest of your messaging needs to focus on your customers. Not about you because they don't care about you. That may be hard to hear, but it is true. So keep that in mind. Do not talk about yourself too much. You need to talk about your customers.

Let's run through these one more time. One, you aren't talking about your customers problems or the results they're looking for. Two, you're using too much copy. Three, your offer isn't clear. They're not clear on what you do and what you have to offer. Four, you aren't giving customers a clear path. And five is you're talking too much about yourself.

Now, if you are making these mistakes, fear not. Now you know that you're actually making them and you can actually do something about it now, you know, "Oh, my gosh. I'm making one of these mistakes or multiple of these mistakes, but I'm still not quite sure what I need to do next." Hop on over to our website. I would be happy to chat with you. It's Rialto Marketing dot com. That's R-I-A-L-T-O Marketing dot com. Click on the Get a Free Consultation button. I guarantee you will get a ton of value from that and walk away with some clarity on what those next steps should be to help you get to where you want to go. Thank you so much for tuning in. Until next time. Take care.