Presented by: Michael Torbay, Creative Director, Torbay Partners
Date: 7/28/2021
The best part about mistakes is that anybody can make them. Michael talks about marketing blunders and how they leave competitors vulnerable and how you’re going to take advantage for yourself.
Mistake # 1: Telling people how to reach you rather than why to reach you. While your competitors left in the past and wasted half of their advertising dollars telling people where they are located and how to get in touch with them you are going to concentrate 90% of your budget persuading people why they should get in touch with you.
Mistake #2: Saying the same thing as everyone else. If you’re saying the same thing as your competitor then by definition you’re not giving consumers a reason to choose your brand. Instead, you are wasting your money. The more alike your competitors appear the greater your opportunity to stand out.
Mistake #3: Answering questions no one is asking. Focus your strategy on the consumer’s experience and challenges. Make your messaging relevant to the questions they’re asking.
Mistake #4: Trying to beat the leader at their own game. Don’t mention quality or price if you don’t have an advantage in those areas.
Mistake #5: The medium is not the message. The average business owners spend the vast majority of his time and energy focused on how to say something loudly or how often to say it. They put almost zero thought into the message itself. The message should resonate with a consumer.
Mistake #6: Getting distracted by shiny things. It’s easy to assume that everything new will replace everything old. Your competitor is like everyone else: the new and the shiny thing is exciting. However, you don’t have to chase those things. It’s safe to go for what’s already working right now.
Mistake #7: Talking about stuff only a business owner would care about. Stop telling about the owner and talk about something the customers care about. Why is buying from you going to be good for them?
Mistake #8: Painting a rosy picture… while ignoring the truth. Advertising that has no connection with the truth is not effective it does not serve you. It is easily identified and easily dismissed. The best thing to do is find somebody else outside your organization to uncover what you’re actually good at and talk about that.
Mistake #9: Putting your needs/desires/convenience ahead of the customer. Stop doing things that make things a little harder for the customers but a lot easier for you. Michael has a three-part plan for making truckloads of money: do what the customer expects, make it easy for the customer not for you, surprise and delight by doing something they don’t expect.
Mistake #10: Interrupting the consumer’s preferred digital path. Don’t interrupt your customer and their life just because you think that they’ll thank you for it in the end. Meet your customer where they are and simply guide them to where you want them to go.