Thursday, January 28, 2010

Marketing Myth Busting! If You Believe You Won’t Succeed?

If you were to believe all the Marketing Myths you hear and base your marketing strategies on them, you’ll be losing sales  - fact. Now, that’s not good for you or your business, so I’m going to bust a few myths right here.

Marketing Myth #1
‘People Buy Products at the Cheapest Price they can Find’

If that was true then companies like Bang & Olufsen wouldn’t exist; cheaper brands would have long since put them out of business.

Despite the ease of research that the internet affords - buyers are generally lazy and don't undertake full research. 

Even on eBay where it is far easier to check the relative prices of a product - people often buy a product at a higher price than they could.  So what causes people to buy? 

The most common buying triggers are:-
  • Confidence in the seller / brand
  • A high perceived value
  • Recommendations / word of mouth
  • Ease of purchase / NOT having to jump through hoops
Busting Marketing Myth #1
Establish your credentials - for example “We have over 20 years of business consultancy experience - so we know what works and what does not work in a business.”

Find ways of enhancing the perceived value of your product or service by adding extras or clearly demonstrating the value of it's purchase.

Make it easy to purchase and receive your product; don’t introduce unnecessary extra steps to the buying process, such as extra forms or complex payment methods.


Marketing Myth #2
'Offering your customers numerous different options will boost your sales'

When confronted with several options, most customers have difficulty making a decision. They often react by procrastinating - and going to a seller who offers a clearer product. 

By all means add extras, up-sells or down-sells, (in fact you Should), just make sure you clearly state what’s included in the product and don’t offer options that not only confuse, but make your selling and processing more difficult.

The human mind works better when offered the two options "buy", "don't buy".

Busting Marketing Myth #2
Only offer one product - or product package per page.  You can have a clear (and short) menu on each page to encourage multiple purchases.

If you have more than one option for a product or service - then give them different names and present them each separately.  For example you could name different levels of a service ‘bronze’, ‘silver’ and ‘gold’.  This is a widely used practice in internet marketing membership websites and proves to work well.

You should always aim at a small, easily understood product or service range.  You should be able to explain each of your products in one or two sentences.  If you can't do this - how do you expect your potential buyers to understand what they are buying?


Marketing Myth #3
'Everybody Needs My Product or Service'

Unfortunately, most people don't believe that they need a particular service or product.  Obviously with items such as video games, your youngsters will try and convince you they really, really need one, but this is peer pressure that has been built up with millions of dollars.  Much of this was spent on research into what there market wanted - and they got it right!

If you believe this myth then you also believe that you can succeed without doing much marketing or selling.  Unfortunately, despite what some marketers tell you - it doesn’t happen that way. 

If you ask any successful marketer, they may or may not be willing to admit a great deal of market research, testing and tweaking happened before they became successful.

Building a successful business is hard work - most of it devoted to finding potential customers and then matching them with your products and services. 

Even if most people can use your product or service, you still need a marketing strategy to reach them and a persuasive sales message to close sales, because you can bet your bottom dollar that anywhere there’s a lot of potential customers, there are a high number of sellers.

Busting Myth 3
Do your homework - find out where your potential customers are, what particular needs and desires they have and what they’re seeking to solve these.

Look for a narrowly defined niche market where your product or service will solve a unique need of the customers.

Design your product or service to meet these needs.

Test, Change, Test, Refine, Test, obtain customer feedback and challenge your results.

Yep, unless you're a millionaire marketer, you'll find many marketing myths that you follow and potentially lose money on.

Ok, now it's your turn. Join the conversation below and get myth bustin'!

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