Admit it, you hate them!
You hate them all!
You don’t like a single one of them but they keep creeping up on you…
Can you guess who I’m talking about?
I’m talking about mistakes!
And I have bad news… you’ll never be able to get rid of them.
It’s the sad truth and makes you feel a bit hopeless… I know.
But, I didn’t come here to ruin your day… I actually came here to give you some good news…
You can drastically reduce the number of mistakes you make if you learn from other people’s mistakes.Click To TweetI’ve done it, experts have done it and billionaires such as Charlie Munger do it (with his file of foolishness)…
The Wakeup Call
You see… you don’t need to go through every single mistake to become an expert. In fact, you shouldn’t!
Here’s why…
- Mistakes cost too much
- Mistakes slow you down and delay your success
Making a mistake is an unexpected cost; it’s an unexpected delay; it’s an unpleasant surprise…
Anyway, enough with my wise speech… I have 5 marketing experts here for you today and they are going to share the worst mistakes they’ve ever made so you can hopefully avoid falling into the same hole… I’ve also added my “2 cents” after each one…
So let’s dive right in…
Zeb Welborn (twitter: @ZebWelborn) www.WelbornMedia.com
The biggest marketing mistake I ever made was assuming that I could help everyone right from the beginning.
When I first started my internet marketing business (because it was via the internet), I thought I could help any business become successful online and so I set up Facebook advertising targeting small business owners in the United States . . . way too large of a target market. By targeting this wide array of individuals I wasted valuable advertising dollars and more importantly, time, energy and focus.
It was a valuable learning experience and so I wouldn’t change anything, but I’ve since realized that identifying a specific target market has helped me to become a sought out resource for internet marketing.
Currently, I’ve identified two areas at which I’m currently able to offer the most value to others.
The first is in the golf industry. With my book, The Social Golf Course, I’ve become the go to expert on social media marketing for golf courses. Identifying this clear target market has helped focus my efforts, secure speaking engagements, and land more clients.
The second is local small and medium-sized businesses. I’ve become very active in my local community and am the current Chairman of the Board for the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce. By being the go-to resource on anything internet marketing related in our community, I’ve been able to acquire many new clients, engage with local influencers and have a positive impact on my community.
If I had advice for someone starting a business fresh, I would say work on identifying a clear target market of customers you can be an invaluable resource to and go from there.
As Chris Brogan, a guest on my Defining Success Podcast said, “When I think of ways to make money, I fail. When I think of ways to be of service to others, I make money.”
My $0.02…
As humans, naturally we want to please everyone… unfortunately, that is never possible. We still give it a try in hopes that it may work for us… and I can tell you from first-hand experience… targeting everyone is the most expensive thing a marketer can do and it never works.
Greg Hickman (twitter: @gjhickman) system.ly
The biggest mistake I ever made was marketing a service for a solution that I was in love with, but the market didn’t feel they had a problem that my solution would solve.
As a business owner and marketer, I needed to fall in love with the problem (and one the market feels is a problem) and not the solution.
Unless your prospects see/feel the problem, it doesn’t matter how well you market the solution.
My $0.02…
Excellent point! I see startups doing this all the time… they market a solution on it’s own. They assume the customer knows the solution solves their problem.
Instead of shoving your solution down their throats, try to understand their problems, sympathize with them and then work with them to solve them. Marketers need to treat their customers with empathy and sympathy… like they’d do with a loved one.
Matt McWilliams (twitter: @MattMcWilliams2) www.mattmcwilliams.com
So I don’t know if this qualifies as truly marketing, but I think it does because pricing is fundamentally marketing.
My biggest mistake was charging too little.
When I began my consulting business, my boss at the time and best friend both told me the best business advice I’ve ever received.
They told me to take whatever I thought I was worth and double or triple it. So, of course, I didn’t do that with my first client. But I have not made that mistake since.
Pricing is marketing because if you value yourself too low (and most people do), you can’t effectively market yourself. You also have to justify a higher price. It should be a price that makes you pause and think “am I truly worth this much”?
If the answer isn’t yes, don’t charge less. Find another business.
My $0.02…
I love this one… especially the last sentence Matt said. It’s extremely powerful. You don’t want to market yourself as the cheapest… you’re not Walmart and you should never try to be. The only time you can be the number one cheap price leader is when you’ve got a massive operation like Walmart.
Matt Paulson (twitter: @MatthewDP) www.Marketbeat.com
The biggest marketing mistake I’ve ever made is being too reliant on a single marketing channel. I ran a network of personal finance blogs between 2007 and 2011 called American Consumer News that received more than 50% of its web traffic from Google search results.
In early 2011, Google dramatically changed their search algorithm and almost every personal finance website got hammered in the ranks. More than half of my web-traffic disappeared overnight and I was in a really tight position because I hadn’t bothered researching and finding other marketing channels that worked.
I firmly believe that no one marketing channel should make up any more than 25% of your business because your business will take a seriously blow if your primary marketing channel disappears.
My $0.02…
This one reminds of the common business advice we hear… “don’t depend on one stream of income”. It also applies in marketing and pretty much everything in life… never depend on just one “thing”.
Jeet Banerjee (@TheJeetBanerjee) www.JeetBanerjee.com
The biggest marketing mistake I have ever made is scaling way too fast. With marketing, especially when you’re spending dollars to acquire customers….you want to scale slowly. There was a time where I figured out that for every $1 I put in marketing I would get $3 back and it seemed like I was just going to mint money from that point forward.
However, the more you spend on marketing….things tend to change. You hit equilibrium points, your campaigns get broader and your conversions may not always stay the way they were to start.
Instead of dumping a massive amount of money when you figure out a marketing strategy, scale slowly and keep tracking/testing your results. Not only will you save a lot of headache by doing this, you can save yourself from potentially losing a lot of money.
My Marketing Pitfalls $0.02…
I left this one for last on purpose. It’s a mistake every marketer has probably made. I’ve done it with Facebook ads; I thought that because $30 got me 1,221 likes on my page that I would get another 1,221 likes if I invested another $30.
It’s always good to keep things steady. Marketers are analytical people… we don’t just throw money around and hope to make a profit, it doesn’t work that way. For that reason, you should always follow the golden rule… ABT – Always Be Testing.
So there you have it…
Marketing mistakes that creep up on us when we’re doing our marketing Don’t waste your time and money on mistakes you could avoid…Click To TweetWhat you just learned can save days of wasted efforts… in fact you now know more than most marketers… you’re already a step ahead. Now keep going and don’t let any mistake stop you!
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Hey Joacob,
Indeed a great roundup.
The best way to learn is to learn from mistakes, whether yours or others. Thank you for crafting this learning resource.
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And the biggest mistake i have made is doing too little or no marketing for my blog. But now i am fixing it.
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“Failure is the Opportunity to begin again more intelligently” said by Henry Ford. This is true you can learn new things from your mistakes.
thanks for sharing the post
Hello Rylee,
Yes, that is an excellent quote indeed. Thank you so much for sharing it and I’m glad you found the post useful.
Thanks for your kind and helpful comment Rylee.
Best,
Zak
Zak Mustapha would love you to read ..Influencer Marketing Mistakes: The Full Step-by-Step Guide With Proofs From The Influencers Themselves
Hello Zak,
I don’t consider them as pitfalls but lessons for the betterment of oneself. BTW loved this article where great marketers are sharing their lessons which they learnt in the past.
Thank you.
Yash Mehra would love you to read ..Tubidy Mp3- Download Tubidy Mobile Music
Hello Yash,
Yes, it’s great to look at it as an opportunity to become better at marketing instead of something to be ashamed of.
Certainly, important lessons.
Anyway, thanks for your comment and I’m glad you found the post useful.
Zak Mustapha would love you to read ..Influencer Marketing Mistakes: The Full Step by Step Guide With Proofs From The Influencers Themselves
Hello,
Glad you found it helpful.
Paid ads are tricky to set up. You’ve got to choose an attractive banner, the amount to bid… targeting… and many other things… there is a bit of testing needed.
Anyway, thanks for your comment.
Beautiful! I think I’m guilty of some of these mistakes especially not pricing my services high enough and selling only solutions to customers. Now I know better
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Hello Seun,
Yes… pricing is a problem especially with the competition out there and people offering their services at $5… and people looking for “bargains”.
It takes some powerful positioning to really stand out and charge what you’re worth.
Anyway, thanks for your comment.
Hi Zak,
I want to reinforce that if you are really excellent at what you do, it doesn’t matter what other people charge. Stand firm on prices and do what I do: if they say, “I can get that for $xx.xx” I say, “well, go buy it from them then; why are you asking me”? Some people you just have to keep telling them that the price is the price; take it or leave it. Once a freelancer starts doing that – provided they set their prices according to their ability – they will stay busy.
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Mistakes are sometimes stepping stones to learning or you can also consider it as a productive failure.
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Hello Transport George,
Yes, you can.
Personally, I wouldn’t like to do something many others have done before me and ended up with the same results.
It’s all up to you.
Good luck and thanks for your comment.
I love reading posts like this – it proves we’re all human, and that we can all learn and get past our mistakes!
Jessica Powell would love you to read ..Pinterest Perfect
Hello Jessica,
Yes, no one is perfect. We all trip at some point in our life.
I’m glad you liked it.
Let’s keep learning!
Thanks for your comment.
Been reading your articles for the past few days. I must say, they are good. Keep it up.
Hey Mark,
Glad to hear that. Very happy to know you are reading my stuff. More importantly, hope you found it useful and actionable.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Your contents are very useful. especially now because I a noob when it comes to online marketing. Hope you update your blog regularly. Online marketing is a bit tricky for beginners like me.
hi if you want to buy something online and you don’t know about their prices then you can get it from Shopping comparision
You never realize what happens. It\’s actual you might get thoughts from missteps and maybe arrangements in the wake of experiencing serious difficulties something.
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, the future is unexpected.
Learning from other’s mistakes is for those who want to save their time. Since there are a lot of mistakes that have been made thousands of times with the same end results…. you can just go ahead and learn from others.
On the other hand, some are new… or kind of different.
It’s up to you whether you choose to learn from your own, from other’s or both.
It is really a good article to find the best ways of blogging. I had a hard luck but some businesses are going good. I will surely follow the instructions.
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Hey James,
Happy you found it helpful as a blogger.
Hopefully after following these steps, your other businesses will work.
Thanks for your comment James.
Good luck.
Thanks! I’ve learnt a lot, especially the fact that if you treat potential customers as partners in your business, you will win their trust and they will convert.
Hi Zak. Thanks for putting this very sound advice together all in one place. I’ve heard Zeb Welborn’s advice from a couple other bloggers recently. You hear all the time that you need to know your target market, but the second part that usually gets left out is that your target market can’t be too big. It’s very good advice and something that I’m working on right now. Matt McWilliams’ advice about not charging too little is another one that I used to hear a lot in both massage school and when I started in network marketing. If you don’t charge what you’re worth you don’t make any money and end up getting burned out because you are having to work too hard to make ends meet. All very good advice. Thanks.
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Hey Ben,
You’re right! When you target a market it should be small. Dominate a small market and then scale up from there. Aiming for a huge market from the beginning is a silly move.
Thanks for your feedback.
It’s a essential and professional post for marketer. As a marketer i think it help me professional work. Thanks for sharing experience.
Hey Salim,
Glad a marketer like yourself found it useful.
Thanks for your kind comment.
All the best in your work.
well yeah we fall, we standup again, mistakes make us who we are the more mistakes you make the more you learn, thanks for compiling your, so that i won’t make them too! thanks for tha great postregards
Hey Supreeth,
Yes, even if you make a mistake you shouldn’t give up. We should always stand up and keep going. Either you learn from your own mistakes or the mistakes of others… the most important part is to never give up.
Glad you liked the article.
Thanks
Hello,
I love this kind of articles where experts suggests and tells about their mistakes and pitfalls they have faced during their journey. These are more practical then any other 2000+ words article with zero knowledge.
Thank you very much for this article. l loved it.
Hey Akash,
Yeah, that’s true. There is nothing like first hand experience and practical advice.
Glad you found their advice useful.
Thanks.
Many of us share our own experience for not to let other people do the same mistakes but…! some part of them have to be done yourself, that is true
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Hey Canali,
That is true. Some things need to be experienced by yourself and others can just be learnt from others.
Thanks for your comment.
I really like what Zeb Welhorn said: “I would say work on identifying a clear target market of customers you can be an invaluable resource to and go from there”
I can’t agree more. If you don’t have a way to really identify exactly who needs your products or services, it makes it nearly impossible to advertise or market to them effectively. And if the market is crowded, why not just create your own new market by combining different things and serve a very specific group of people. Great advice from Zeb.
Hey Mike,
Exactly! It truly is the foundations of business and marketing. Be unique and dominate your market. Otherwise you’ll just be another choice for the consumer.
Thanks for commenting.
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Hello Zak Mustapha, Great post and very helpful insight. If you are doing business, you would be doing mistakes, what counts is that whether one is learning from that mistake or not. Very useful article to share among us. Shantanu sinha
Hey Shantanu,
Yes, that’s true. You can’t avoid all mistakes.
All you can do is learn from the mistakes you make and from what others made.
Glad you liked the post.
Thanks for your kind comment.
Such a informative article about marketing pitfalls ! thanks for share and make us know.
Now as per digital marketing things really revered and new trends are out !!
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Hey Krify,
Happy, you found the advice in the article useful.
Thanks for your kind comment.
All the best.
Hi Zak Mustapha,
Thanks for sharing the experts Bloggers. Really I got something new on this sites. As worst marketing experts bloggers teaches us something new.
Thanks for sharing the Great Blogger Collections.
Church in Prescott AZ
Hey Church,
I’m glad you found it helpful.
Thank you for your kind comment. 🙂
Regards,
Zak Mustapha
Zak Mustapha would love you to read ..7 Soft Hearted Mistakes Startup Founders Make
Hey Rama,
Yes, if you know what doesn’t work then the chances of getting it right will increase.
Thanks for your comment. Glad you found it helpful.
Good luck.
Zak Mustapha would love you to read ..7 Soft Hearted Mistakes Startup Founders Make
Great piece and really useful insight. The longer you’re in business, the more mistakes you make. But it’s learning from them that matters, right?
I made the mistake of not being consistent in my marketing. I would pick up and put down depending on my client work. But, your marketing has to be something you schedule and do each and every day to get results.
Hey Debbie,
Yep, that’s true – learning from the mistake is essential.
Consistency is hard even for me sometimes. Especially for social media where your followers should hear from your regularly.
If you don’t connect with them regularly, they’ll probably forget who you are and just mark you as spam – especially for emails.
Anyway, thanks for your comment.
Hello,
Thanks a lot for sharing worst marketing pitfalls of expert bloggers. It helped a lot avoid mistakes which may result in a huge loss which these experts faced.
Hey Sikhar,
Yes, I’ve made most of those mistakes myself. I wish I heard this advice before.
Glad it helped you.
Thanks for your comment.
This posts are very useful to us i have figured out few mistakes that I have been committing But no longer from now. Thanks for sharing this informative post
Hey Shad,
I’m very happy to hear that the expert advice was helpful.
Wish you all the best.
Thanks for your nice comment.
You will learn lot of things from your mistakes.. thomas alva edison once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”.. so keep going till your target is reached.. thanks for sharing the post..
Hey Oswin,
Yes, learning from mistakes helps us know what doesn’t work.
Glad you enjoyed the post and hope you found it helpful.
Thanks for your comment.
The biggest mistake I made in marketing was sand bagging my pricing just to win a contract. In the long run, the operating cost is equal the gross revenue plus receivables and at the end of the day, I have a contract but no income. Everything is just breaking even.
One should not lower down his/her service pricing, instead increase the value added service that one can get out of the service.
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Hey Marlon,
Yes, there’s no point working for free… it’s just a waste of time.
But I guess we do it in order to get testimonials from large brands and influencers. It can be helpful sometimes if that’s the case. But only for the start.
Well anyway, good luck with your career and thanks for sharing your experience.
Hi Zak,
Even my biggest mistake was that I could earn through the internet in a small time and help other through my marketing. The marketers about whom you have shared taught us many things so that we do not make the same mistakes.
Thanks for the share.
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Hey Robin,
Yeah, usually it takes longer than we think.
It usually takes 3 times more than you planned.
Anyway, yeah… glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for your comment.
Sometimes, your marketing mistakes may lead to some unexpected results and gives you new ideas.
Well, wonderful post and thanks for sharing with us.
Hey Shaoor,
You never know what happens. It’s true you may get ideas from mistakes and perhaps solutions after having a hard time doing something.
Thanks for your comment.
Superb Knowledge about Marketing, these always very helpful for me, basically, I have good knowledge about marketing, but I have read your complete article, after that, I have got more ideas about Marketing. Thanks a Lot for shared..
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lol I am thinking that What if I use the tricks of worst marketing. It is really getting tough day by day for marketing experts to apply and judge the best method.
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Hey Mark,
You never know. The only way to find out is by trying them out. But usually they should work for you too. Since most of those mistakes were kind of general and they happen to almost everyone.
Thanks for your comment.
These all are helpful for me. Learn much from this post. Plan a perfect marketing strategy then spend time and money on Marketing. Thanks you for sharing this info.
The biggest marketing mistake I made is to spend money on advertising before my site was really ready. This was money wasted on nothing and of course I’ve learned a lot from it.
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Hey Jacob,
Yes, indeed. I’ve made that mistake myself. I think it’s because we get too excited to advertise, we just can’t wait.
Thanks for your comment.
Me too couldn’t agree more! Later then I found out best thing is to let it grow itself, instead of burning money in ads.
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