Are You Making Any of These Common Marketing Mistakes?

How do you judge the effectiveness of your small business marketing efforts? Easy...does it produce results? Great looking ads, fancy logos and flashy web sites are worthless if they don't bring business to your door. This list of 10 common marketing mistakes can help you produce better results.

1. Not Having a Clearly Defined USP.
Do you want to fit in or stand out? In order to thrive in today's cluttered marketplace, every business owner must be able to clearly articulate an answer to the question, "Why should someone do business with you rather than your competitor?" "What makes you unique? Your answer to these questions constitutes your Unique Selling Proposition. Do you offer 24-hour, 7 day a week service? Do you offer the lowest price? Do you offer a no risk guarantee? A strong USP helps you to stand out in a crowded field.

2. Selling Features Rather than Benefits.
Someone once said, "No one ever bought a drill bit. Millions of people have bought a hole" People don't buy features, they buy benefits. They are tuned into Radio Station W.I.I.F.M. (What's in it for me?) Tell them clearly how the features of your product/service will help them, make their life easier, etc.  

3. Not using headlines in print advertisements.
You have at most a couple of seconds to grab someone's attention when they read a newspaper, magazine etc. Using an attention-grabbing headline ensures that the reader will continue to read the rest of the advertisement. The headline is an ad for the ad. Take a look at some newspaper ads. Which ones attract your attention? You will probably find they have utilized an effective headline.  

4. Not testing headlines, price points, packages, pitches, everything.
How do you know what ad, what price, what offer most appeals to customers? By putting them to a vote. Test everything. Rather than running one newspaper ad for three weeks, why not run three different ads for three weeks and measure which draws better? Rather than putting all your advertising into newspaper, why not split between newspaper and direct mail and measure the results? Why not price your products/services at different points and see which sells more? Is cheaper always better? Not necessarily. Each situation is unique. One price may outperform another for a myriad of reasons. Your job is not to know why, but to find what works. Test, test, test.

5. Making it difficult to do business with you.
Are your sales staff knowledgeable about your products? Does someone answer your phone promptly and in a friendly manner? Can people find your phone number, location? Can customers find things easily in your store? Put yourselves in your customer's shoes. Don't make them work-they won't. I've seen a web site that undoubtedly cost the company thousands of dollars and NOWHERE could I find a phone number or email address. Your customer has better things to do than struggle to do business with you.

6. Not finding out what your customer's needs are.
What is the first step in filling your customer's needs? Discovering what they are. What's most important to them? Don't even try to guess. You may think price is most important when what they really want is fast service. You may believe fast service is what they want when what they desperately want is a friendly, personal touch. How do you find out? People won't tell you unless you ask. So ask.

7. Not maintaining an up to date customer database.
Your customer list is pure gold. Rather than always working to bring new customers in the door, why not take advantage of the good will you have already built with your existing clientele? Experiment with extending special offers to your customer base. Ask for referrals. Send them a card on their birthday. Call and ask what they most enjoyed about doing business with you (or what they disliked doing business with you). You worked hard to develop these relationships. Recognize their value and work hard to "re-delight" them.

8. Not eliminating the risk.
What stops a customer from buying from you? Are they unsure that your offer is worth their hard-earned money? Make it easy to decide to buy from you. How can you reduce their risk? If you are in a service business, let them try your service at no cost. If you are a lawyer or consultant offer them a free consultation. Offer them a money back, no questions asked guarantee on any product they buy. Why not? Are you afraid people will take advantage of you? Give it a try for a month. You may be very pleasantly surprised. Not confident in your product or service? Then go to work on improving your service.

9. Not educating your customers
Don't just claim that your service is better. Explain why. Are your staff better trained? Do you utilize a technology that increases service turnaround or quality? Don't expect people to just take your word for things. Quality, Service and Value mean nothing. Everyone claims to offer these. Make these claims real for the customer by offering credible explanations why they should do business with you.

10. Not knowing what works, and sticking with it.
Do you know which ads are effective? What media pulls best? What offer gets the best reaction? By testing (see above) you will. When you find something that works, don't change it until you find something that works better. Just because you're sick of an ad/offer isn't a good enough reason to change it. You can supplement with other ads and offers. If it works, keep it.

Company Financial management in the small firm is distinguished, in many different instances, by the need to face a somewhat
different set of problems and opportunities than those faced by a large corporation. 1 immediate and obvious distinction is that a
majority of smaller businesses do not normally have the opportunity to openly sell issues of bonds or stocks in order to raise
capital. The owner-manager of a bigger firm must rely primarily on trade credit, bank financing, lease financing, and personal
equity to fund the business. One, therefore faces a much more severely restricted pair of financing alternatives than those faced
with the financial vice president or treasurer of a large corporation.

On another Hand, if small business financial management is concern, many financial problems facing the small firm are very like
those of larger corporations. For example, the analysis necessary for a long-term investment choice like the purchase of heavy
machines or the test of lease-buy options, is essentially the exact same regardless of the size of the company. Once the choice is
made, the financing alternatives available to the business may be radically different, however, the decision procedure will be
generally comparable.

1 area of Special concern for the smaller business owner is in the effective management of working capital. Net working capital is
defined as the difference between current assets and current liabilities and is frequently considered as the"circulating capital"
of the business. Deficiency of control in this vital area is a key source of business failure in both small and massive firms.

The business Manager must always be alert to changes in working capital accounts, the reason behind those changes and the
implications of these changes for the financial health of the corporation. 1 convenient and efficient system to highlight the
crucial managerial requirements in this area is to view working capital concerning its major components:

Cash and Equivalents. This most liquid form of present assets, cash and cash equivalents (usually marketable securities or
short-term certificate of deposit) requires continuous supervision. A well planned and maintained money budgeting process is
imperative to answer crucial questions such as: Is the cash level sufficient to meet current expenses as they come due? What are
the timing connections between cash inflows and outflows? When will peak cash needs happen? What will be the magnitude of bank
borrowing needed to meet any cash shortfalls? So when will this borrowing be necessary and when will repayment be expected?
Accounts Receivable. Virtually all businesses are required to extend credit to their clients. Crucial issues in this area include:
Is the amount of accounts receivable fair in relation to earnings? On the average, how rapidly are accounts receivable being
accumulated? Which customers are"slow payers?" What actions should be taken to rate sets where needed?Inventories.Inventories frequently constitute 50 percent or more of a firm's current assets and so, are worthy of close scrutiny.
Key questions which must be considered in this area include: Is your level of inventory reasonable concerning sales and the
working characteristics of the small business? How quickly is stock turned over compared to other businesses in the same industry?
Isn't any funds invested in dead or slow moving inventory? Are earnings being lost as a result of insufficient inventory levels?
When appropriate, what action should be taken to increase or reduce inventory?

Accounts Payable and Trade Notes Payable. In a business, trade credit often provides a significant source of funding for the firm.
Key issues to research in this category include: Why is the sum of money owed to providers reasonable in relation to purchases? Is
the firm's payment plan such it will improve or detract from the company's credit rating? If accessible, are discounts being
taken? What will be the timing relationships between payments on accounts payable and collection accounts receivable?Notes
Payable. Notes payable to banks or other creditors are a second significant source of financing for the company. Important
questions in this course include: What is the amount of bank borrowing used? Is this debt amount reasonable in regard to the
equity funding of the firm? When will interest and principal payments fall due? Will it be available to meet those payments in
time?

Accrued Expenses and Taxes Payable. Accrued expenses and taxes payable represent responsibilities of the company as of the date of
balance sheet preparation. Accrued expenses represent such items as salaries payable, interest payable on bank notes, insurance
premiums payable, and related products. Of main concern in this region, particularly with respect to taxes payable, is the size,
timing, and availability of funds for payment. Careful planning is required to insure that these obligations are met on time.

As a final Note, it is very important to realize that although the working capital accounts above are listed separately, they must
also be looked at in total and from the point of view of the connection to one another: what's the overall trend in net operating
capital? Is this a healthy trend? Which individual balances are responsible for this trend? How can the firm's working capital
position relate to similar sized companies in the business? What could be done to fix the trend, if necessary?

Of course, the Questions posed are a lot easier to ask than to answer and there are few"general" answers to the issues raised. The
guides which follow provide hints, techniques, and instructions for effective management that, when tempered with the experience
of the person owner-manager and the unique demands of the particular sector, might be expected to enhance the capacity to manage
efficiently the fiscal resources of a company enterprise.

There's one Simple reason to understand and detect company financial planning in your company - to avoid failure. Eight of ten new
companies fail primarily because of the dearth of good financial planning.

Business Financial planning impacts how and on what terms you'll have the ability to attract the funding needed to establish,
preserve, and expand your company.

Financial Planning decides the raw materials you can afford to purchase, the products you will have the ability to create, and
whether or not you will have the ability to sell them economically. It impacts the physical and human tools you'll have the
ability to get to operate your small business. It'll be a major determinant of whether you will be able to make your hard work
profitable.

This segment Provides an summary of the vital elements of financial management and planning. Used wisely, it is going to produce
the reader the small business owner/manager - comfortable enough with all the principles to have a fighting chance of succeeding
in today's highly competitive business environment.

A clearly Conceived, well documented fiscal plan, establishing goals and including the Use of Pro Forma Statements and Budgets to
ensure financial management, will Demonstrate not only that you know what you wish to do, but that you know how To accomplish it.
This demonstration is essential to attract the capital Required by your business from creditors and investors.

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