Dawn Westerberg is a fellow Duct Tape Marketing Consultant – love this great article she shares about the “Four Common Failures That Strategic Marketing Helps You Avoid“! In summary:
- Lack of strategy – yep, this is a biggie. Most small businesses want to jump into a new campaign, a new tool or copy the competitor down the street. Duct Tape Marketing is all about “strategy before tactics” and Dawn’s first point is spot on!
- The one-off – what business owner hasn’t cried, “I tried that once and no results!” Often the reality is that one time is never enough. You need a consistent stream of laser focused communication to not only catch your audience’s attention, but you need a repetitive themed message to convert them to hearers to action-taking customers. Dawn suggests setting up a systematic calendar to keep it flowing.
- Marketing dollars stretched too thin – another problem for businesses who have an unfocused marketing strategy. When you are shootin’ in the dark, you’re gonna need alot more bullets to hit the target. But when you know your target market and speak their language, your messages will resonate and you probably can spend alot less waste doing so.
- Dull, boring and indistinguishable – remember this: as special as you think you are, your prospects think you are a commodity business and you are no different than your competitor. You have to differentiate in order to dominate!
Definitely one of the best pieces I’ve read in 2011 on why strategic marketing is critical! Great job Dawn!
-Randy, Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant