6 Common Mistakes Marketers Make That Deter Customers
While there are countless different approaches to marketing an item, there are a few ways that have proven to work and thousands of ways that have proven not to work. This article focuses on ways that not only don’t work, but actually deter potential customers from considering your product or service.
6 common marketing mistakes that can turn consumers away from your brand.
Selling your product. As ironic as this first approach is, selling a product is the last thing a consumer wants to see. Consumers don’t turn to social media to read paragraphs about why your product works or what your product does. The truth is: no one cares about your product or your company. The consumer only cares about what’s in it for them. Focus on the benefits they can get from purchasing your product or service, and you will more quickly attract their attention. In short, benefits over features, ALWAYS.
Headlines that appear clickbait-y. These are the types of mistakes that ruin it for the rest of us. Headlines that promise the reader a benefit, only to result in an anti-climatic chase for value. If you’re going to tease a benefit in the headline, provide credible support for it in your body copy. It’s the only responsible thing to do. The biggest takeaway from this mistake: don’t promise the world without having evidence to back your claims. (Check out best headline formulas for a few good examples).
Superlative writing. Overpromising the benefits of purchasing your product or service. This method is often followed by little to no support backing up the headline’s claims. Anyone can claim to be “the best” or “the new thing.” The only thing, and I mean the only thing that matters most when writing copy, is your ability to back up a benefit with the specific value that your company provides.
Writing “too smart.” Don’t try so hard to sound smart. Talk as you would in a normal conversation. That is what will attract people to you, not trying to sound like a pretentious know-it-all. Level with people and relate to them through common experiences. If you know what you are talking about, and talk about it in a knowledgeable manner, your expertise will shine through. Knowing how to write content for your users will make engaging them that much easier.
Poor research. This is not a factor that consumers can see through, but it is a factor that heavily impacts the performance of any content that you produce. Without research, you are simply guessing what your audience will like. This is best illustrated by writing headlines. You can not run an effective headline when you are assuming what the reader’s most favorable benefit is going to be. You can’t write a headline talking about how inexpensive your coats are when your readers only care about how warm your coats make them feel. Always know your audience and always do your research.
Mistargeting audiences. This one is huge, especially if you have a smaller budget. You can’t target everyone who lives in America and likes baseball with a budget of $5 a day. First of all, not everyone who likes baseball and lives in America is going to be interested in buying Joey’s beer on the corner of 5th and 12th downtown. Second of all, you won’t see any results from audience parameters that large. If you have a specific goal in mind and have less than $100 a day to spend on ads, then it’s time to buckle down and be picky with your audience. For example, Joey’s beer should target the age group of 21 - 40 who lives or works within a 1 mile radius of Joey’s store address. They could then run an ad that specifically mentions “stop by and grab an ice-cold 6-pack on your way home from work.” Now that’s an ad that would get some killer results. You could even get as specific as solely running the ad to your target audience between 1pm and 11pm. On the flip side of this point, don’t try to over-target your audience. Running too many audience segments will do more harm than help. To help relieve the stress of targeting the right audience segments, always remember - what you say is more important than who sees it.
Have an appropriate target size for your budget. An audience that is too large will take longer to optimize and an audience that is too short will fatigue quicker than you can say “I can’t wait to see results.”
Narrow in on behaviors and interest you know that your ideal customer has, but don’t target so many that it will affect the distribution of your ads. If you target too many audience characteristics, you could be leaving out potential customers or even end up targeting users that are completely irrelevant.
Target people that are able to take action on your ads. If you want people to visit your physical location, don’t target users that live an hour away. If you want people to buy your product online, don’t worry so much about where they live and worry more about whether or not they would be interested in your product in the first place.
Use audience insights tools to better define common interests, behaviors, and characteristics of your ideal customer.
Takeaways:
Focus on the benefits of your product or service and what that means for your ideal customers, rather than promoting solely the features of your brand.
Don’t over promise and never make claims without being able to back them up.
Be specific and avoid generic claims. Don’t tell your audience about how you’re the best, tell them about how you can help them specifically.
Write your content as though you are having a conversation with your audience. Don’t write from a superior position of authority, instead engage users by talking how they talk and making your content easy to understand. The better you can explain your product or service in common terms, the more of an expert you appear to be.'
Do your research. Understand what type of content engages your audience, what they value, what problems they are facing, and what solutions they are looking for.
Know how to define your audience. When running ads, make sure your audience size reflect the size of your budget. Make sure you are reaching the people that are most likely to take action on your ads.
ALWAYS provide value to your audience, it’s the only way you will be able to engage them in today’s digital age.
