Massive Marketing Mistakes – Number One: Being the Same as Everyone Else

Over the years I’ve met many people who are new in business and are struggling to get going. They are finding the first few years really tough and are wondering when it will get easier. I’ve also met a large number of people who have been running their own businesses for a number of years – sometimes more than 10 years – who are struggling to keep going.

When I look closely at the problems that both these sets of businesses have, I see some real similarities. In fact, I think there are nine marketing mistakes that the new businesses and the more established ones are making. These mistakes prevent you from enjoying the freedom that running your own business is supposed to bring you. I have built these nine mistakes (or rather the results of avoiding them) into a clever process that you can apply, in order to build the business you want – one that isn’t struggling to survive! I will write a blog about each of the stages for you to follow.

Massive Marketing Mistake Number One – Being the Same as Everyone Else

In order to win business, you need to stand out from the crowd. To do this, you need to show potential clients why your business is different from your competitors.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard business owners say “My business is different because we’re the cheapest/best/most unique.” You can’t all be the cheapest or the best or the most unique!

Too many businesses don’t put enough effort into working out what really makes them different. You’ve probably heard of USPs – Unique Selling Propositions – and you might even have yours written down somewhere. But does it really show potential clients how you can help them better than another business? Does it connect with their emotions? We all make emotional decisions about what to buy and who to buy it from – not rational decisions. You need to know how your service helps people on an emotional level.

How do you avoid the first Massive Marketing Mistake?

Work out what really makes your business different – your Emotional USP (eUSP). There are six eUSPs and you can find out more about them in this blog. Have a read and decide which is yours; then think about how to use that information in all your marketing messages. Here’s an example:

At Appletree we used to think that clients worked with us because marketing was a fun, exciting thing that they wanted to do. Wrong! Most of our clients don’t want to worry about their marketing – they just want to have it done for them, so that they can get on doing what they get paid for. They want the certainty of knowing that their marketing will be done, building their reputation and bringing them new clients. At first we thought that Certainty was a rather dull eUSP to have, until we started explaining to prospects that they could trust us to just get on with it. Now we have a reputation for ‘done for you’ marketing. “Just make it happen” is a request we often hear from our clients.

So what really makes your business different? What is your emotional USP? Knowing it is a real foundation stone for a successful business. Get in touch to tell us, or to let us know if you need help working out your eUSP and how to use it.

The second Massive Marketing Mistake is having no goals for your business. If your eUSP is your starting point – where you are now in your business – your goals are where you are going. In the next blog in this series, we’ll look at how to build your goals from your USP and take your business to the next level.