How to Fix The Five Biggest Marketing Mistakes
Mistake Number 3: No Meaningful Differentiation
Are you struggling to attract more new customers to your business? Do you see your competitors growing and wonder what they are doing to be so successful (even though you know their product or service isn't nearly as good as yours)?
Here's how to really supercharge your marketing .
This month we continue our series on "How to Fix the 5 Biggest Marketing Mistakes." Many entrepreneurs and business owners have one thing in common. They spend most of their time working "in" their business, and very little time working "on" it. They rarely stop to question whether what they are doing is working well, let alone whether they could do any better. At its simplest level, every business has two fundamental parts: doing the work and getting the work. For most business owners, doing the work is the easy part. Getting the work is the hardest part. And it should hardly be a surprise when you consider the brutal reality … that most business owners have never had any marketing training!
Here are the the 5 Biggest Small Business Marketing Mistakes …
1. No Marketing Plan - Document your marketing plan
2. No Sense of Marketing Economics - Understand the $ value of a customer and the cost of marketing
3. No Meaningful Differentiation - Develop your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
4. Ineffective Marketing Message - Communicate your solution to your market's problem
5. Passive Marketing - Develop an active referral-based marketing system
Mistake III - No Meaningful Differentiation
Develop Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
What Makes You Different?
There is a very successful restauranteur in London, Ontario named Mike Smith. He started a restaurant in 1984, a casual eatery he called "Joe Kool's". He had a neon front window sign made that said "Joseph Koolisky's", and had the neon look partially burnt out, to read "Joe Kool's". He had matchbooks made up that said "Minutes from All Major Hospitals", poking fun at his food. A big sign in the place says "Warm Beer, Cold Women, and Lousy Food". Another sign says "At Joe Kool's Quality is just a slogan.
When he started delivering pizza, his slogan was "30 Minutes or its Cold". For his opening day, he sent letters to Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Joe Clark, Ronald Reagan, Queen Elizabeth, Tony Bennett, and others, inviting them to his grand opening. None came, but their offices all sent very gracious letters to respectfully decline. He had them framed and put them up on his walls. He has a life-size mannequin of Elvis Presley in a casket hanging from the ceiling.
His menu is a take-off of the National Enquirer, called the National Perspirer, with off the wall reports on recent news. One of his menu items is a Swanson TV dinner.
I could go on. It works. Joe Kool's has been packed since day one. Everyone knows that the restaurant is fun, with good food. Smith has gone on to open another 5 restaurants. Each one is unique in its market. When you hear the name of one of his restaurants, you immediately know what it is about. They each have a clearly defined character that their markets understand.
Smith has established very clearly his Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Have you? Have you made yourself so unique that people will chose to do business with you over any of your competitors?
One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is to not be unique, and not craft its marketing message around that uniqueness. It is your statement to the world that you are different.
Why Your USP is Important
You need to identify, develop, and incorporate your USP into everything you do. That can be a challenge. Remember, you do not have to be the best, just unique. Joe Kool's does not have the best food in London. What it does have is good food and the most unique dining experience in his market. They use this to dominate their market. You can too.
And that is just what you must learn to do, dominate your market. If you use your USP properly, it can create a real and perceived advantage in your customer's mind. This can yield substantial revenue advantages and even more phenomenal income advantages for you. Your cost of sales and marketing will be lower -- because you are different you will get more (free) word of mouth marketing. In addition, people generally are prepared to pay more for unique experiences, so you can expect higher gross margins! I cannot overstate the importance of nailing your USP. At Action International, we have a workbook that helps you work through your USP in detail. E-mail us at coaches@actionbusinessdevelopment.com if you'd like to get your copy of the workbook, or if you would just like to talk with us about this topic.
To pick a USP, do not rush it. First, identify which needs in your markets that are going unfulfilled. Be prepared to change the way you do business. For instance, if you are a home renovator, you are in an industry that is notorious for not making deadlines. It is the way of life for most operators. What about: "Your Home Renovation Done on Time or its Free"? If that was your USP and your marketing message, do you think that would get you more business? Of course it would! However, you would need to re-engineer your business systems, and most likely your own mindset, to make it successful.
Domino's Pizza came up with "Fresh Hot Pizza in 30 Minutes or it is Free". Think of the management changes that had to be made to fulfill this. They did, and they differentiated themselves in the market. Funny thing is, if a competitor did the same thing, they would not have received nearly the marketing boost that Domino's got simply by doing it first.
Use Your USP Everywhere
Once you have developed your USP, use it everywhere--your ads, radio, TV, yellow pages, direct mail, etc. Put it on your business cards. You cannot wear it out. It will be the key to successfully communicating, the reason why you should be in business.
So, start thinking about what can make your business unique and apply that uniqueness in all of your marketing and sales activities.
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