6 Reasons Your Marketing Isn’t Working And How to Fix It
The success of a business depends largely on effective marketing. Your business may have “the best” products or services out there, but without marketing, none of your potential customers would know about them!
Effective and good marketing helps a business to build brand awareness, launch new products, increase sales and market shares, communicate with and engage customers.
But what if you find that your marketing isn’t working?
What if you invest a lot of money and time in marketing, but you’re not even close to reach the sales conversions and sales goals you’ve set?
Here are 6 common marketing mistakes and how to fix them to increase sales and sales conversions:
Mistake #1: You Don’t Have a Well Defined Target Audience
To market successfully, you must know exactly WHO you’re marketing to.
So before you start a marketing campaign for any of your products or services, you must know your target audience, i.e. the people most likely to buy your product or service, really well.
You must know their pain points and problems. What keeps them awake at night?
What do they want on a deeper level?
You don’t just want to have thousands of visitors to your website. It’s more important you get the “right” visitors. That is, you want visitors who are interested in what you offer and can easily be converted into customers. You want visitors who have a “pre-desire” for your product.
How to fix it: Define your target audience.
Think about what problem(s) your product solves, and what benefits it offers. Then describe a person who is a perfect potential customer for your product. This person will then represent your target audience.
Use Google and Facebook to study and learn more about your target audience. Enter relevant search words and phrases, keywords and “the problem” your product can solve (“how to fix….”) and check out websites and Facebook Groups in the search results.
See what people comment on, what they complain about and what they struggle with. Pay attention to what competitors offer.
When doing this, you’ll also see what social media platforms they are active on (where they hang out online), people and companies they like and follow, and what blogs they read etc.
This information is important to know when outlining your marketing strategy.
For more information about how to do this, download this worksheet => Perfect Customers Online
Mistake #2: You Don’t Have A Marketing Plan
Do you think that your website will market itself and get thousands of visitors automatically – if you just create great content?
Well, unless you’re a famous person or you have a very unique product or niche, the likelihood that this will happen is pretty much non-existing… There are millions of blogs and websites out there, all fighting for people’s attention and number one SEO rankings!
Therefore, without a proper marketing plan, your website will most likely have little or no traffic. And with no traffic, you’ll have no leads and no sales.
How to fix it: Create a marketing plan.
Create a plan for the next 6-12 months. Outline what content you plan to create for your blog and social media, what products you’ll promote, on what platforms you’ll promote them, what marketing activities you plan etc.
You should also outline and create sales funnels and campaigns and set marketing goals. Without goals, you can’t measure your results.
Stay consistent with your marketing plan and activities, adjust and adapt what’s needed along the way. To succeed is more about the things you do every day than a ONE big thing.
For more info about how to do this, visit => Marketing Plan
Mistake #3: You’re Not Monitoring the Analytics
If you’re not monitoring your marketing analytics you’ve got to start doing that!
You have to monitor your analytics to make sure your marketing is working and that you’re on track with your results. It will also tell you what’s NOT working and thereby give you the chance to correct it.
How to fix it: Commit to monitor the marketing analytics.
Make sure you have Google analytics installed for your website / blog to monitor traffic to your website, where the traffic comes from, how long time visitors stay on your website, most popular pages / posts, and most frequently used keywords.
Your email marketing service has most likely its own built-in analytics, and the social media platforms and /or schedulers you use should have it too.
Check the marketing analytics at least once per week to check if you meet the goals you’ve set, to see what works and what doesn’t.
Mistake #4: You’re Not Focusing on the Benefits
Effective marketing isn’t about promoting specific product features and what the product is.
Instead, you want to talk about what it DOES and the benefits of the benefits.
That is, how or in what way can your product improve your prospect’s life? Talk about the results they want and how your product can help them get there.
It’s easy to get caught up in your product’s features because you find them interesting and amazing! But your target audience is only interested in what it can do for them.
Therefore, to build your audience’s DESIRE for your product and make your target audience realise how awesome the product is, your marketing must focus on the benefits.
Make your prospects picture themselves having or using your product – let them test it if possible.
How to fix it: Make sure your marketing message is focused on the benefits of the product.
Talk about what it can DO for your prospects. What problem can it solve? What results can they get from having or using it?
Try to paint a picture of your prospect’s before=“unhappy state”, because of the problem or pain they have. And then the after=“happy state”, when their particular problem or pain is resolved. Your product is the magic transformation from being unhappy to being happy.
To learn more, visit => How To Tap Into Your Prospects’ Real Problems
Mistake #5: You’re Not Creating Belief
Your marketing has to infuse belief in your prospect’s mind!
What else have they bought before that didn’t work? What similar product have they tried that failed?
What does your prospects need to believe to buy your product?
Fact is, they don’t only have to believe in your product, but they also have to believe in YOU (as a trusted salesperson) and in themselves.
“I don’t believe this will work for me” is one of the most common objections you get when selling something.
How to fix it: Help your prospects believe.
Your prospects must believe in the product, in you and in themselves. You must help them to overcome any scepticism.
Let your marketing explain what’s different with your product from other products they may have tried – and perhaps failed with.
The best thing you can do to help them believe in your product, is to use social proof like testimonials. Show them case studies of how the product has helped other people to overcome a problem similar to theirs or how it has helped other people to reach a specific result.
If you can show them that the product works for other people similar to them, you’ll help them believe it can work for them as well.
And the best way to make them believe in YOU is to engage with them and build a relationship with them. You can do this if you meet them 1-on-1, on the phone, by email follow-ups or by posting valuable information on social media and/ or your blog.
Try to provide useful information, answer questions they have and address common objections.
Mistake #6: Your Offer Isn’t Attractive Enough!
If you know that your offer is a perfect solution for your target audience, your marketing is focused on the benefits and you have a well-crafted marketing message — but your prospects are STILL not buying…. Then you have to improve the way you present the offer and increase the total value of it.
The “offer” includes much more than just your actual product or service. It’s everything it takes to get a prospect to say “yes” to your deal.
How to fix it: Improve your offer and increase its value.
You can do this in many ways. You can increase the total value of your offer, by adding one or more additional items for free (or at a special discount) as a bonus / bonuses.
This should be items that increase the value of your main offer. It can be a “related” product, but it can also be services like: free coaching, free support for x months, free help to get started with the product or a done-for-you service.
Another way to improve your offer is to decrease the RISK. An easy way to do this is to offer a money back guarantee, should they not be happy with the product.
You also want to decrease the friction of buying by making it EASY for them. Try to think of ways to decrease the amount of hoops they need to jump through to buy from you. Make the purchase smooth. The fewer steps, the better.
Moreover, to make your offer even more attractive, add URGENCY to your offer. Say your special offer with bonuses etc. is only valid for one day or for the first 5 buyers e.g. to convince them to buy NOW.
Marketing isn’t rocket science, but it’s more than just creating a few blog posts and ads with pretty pictures and strategically placed fonts…
If you really want to up the game and sell consistently online, here’s how you can learn the fundamentals of online marketing AND cutting edge strategies and tactics that top earners are using:
>> Cutting Edge Online Marketing <<
If you find that your marketing isn’t giving you a ROI you’re pleased with and it’s not converting as many prospects into buyers as it should, I hope one of the “how to fix it” tips above can help you improve your marketing, sales and conversions!
Let me know in the comments what you think and share any other sales conversion tips you may have.
And as always… if you found value in this post, please SHARE on your favourite social media network! Thanks!!
This blog contains affiliate links for tools I use and recommend which means at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase.
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