Are you making this crucial marketing mistake? (9/10 business owners are)

Posted by David Tendrich on Feb 13, 2010 in Marketing | 7 comments

Hey friend,

It’s about 2 am here in Georgia. I’ve been up thinking about a couple situations I’ve run across lately, and I realized that it’s so crucial that I had to share it with you.

It has to do with a mistake that is costing many business owners literally tens of thousands of dollars.

Actually, so many across the WORLD are making this mistake that I’d even say millions are being wasted on DEAD-END advertising.

This is what I mean…

(By the way everything I’m writing from here on out is not meant to be abrasive – it’s just really true, and really important. I want you to succeed so I feel that it’s my obligation to tell you about it.)

Advertising is for one person, and one person alone: your reader.

It honestly has nothing to do with you, except for the fact that you’re the one putting out the ad. Other than that, your ad/website/etc. is for your reader.

Sometimes this means setting your ego aside (I know as well as anyone that this isn’t always the easiest thing in the world).

Sometimes, you’re so in line with your target market that you could practically write to yourself and it’ll do just fine.

Most of the time though, your target market isn’t you. You’re someone who’s already solved a problem that they have. You’re providing the solution. You’re the expert.

So you’re writing to people with a PROBLEM. And you need to always remember that.

Yeah, you may have won 10 awards. Yeah, you may have 17 degrees and 22 certifications…

But the bottom line is, someone is going to call an ad that speaks directly to them over an ad that talks about how many degrees someone has.

Let’s stop and be brutally honest for a second:

The last time you sat down to write copy, choose a design for your website, or anything else relating to marketing -

Did you think, “What would my target market want to see?”

or did you think, “What do I prefer?”

It’s okay if you asked yourself the second question – but asking yourself the first question is what makes sales.

Dale Carnegie said it beautifully.

He said that he loves strawberry shortcake – but when he goes fishing he doesn’t put it on the line. He puts what the fish like.

That’s the golden rule of marketing. If you’re breaking it – now’s the perfect time to head in a new direction. I have literally fought with clients for hours to get them to see this when they couldn’t understand why I wrote copy in the way that I did.

And that also goes for colors, fonts, graphics – anything! It all has to be for your reader – not for you (unless the two of you happen to have the same aesthetic).

But I’m so passionate about getting people results that I’d rather my client hate me and make a ton of money then like me because I wrote it the way they wanted and have the ad get zero response.

Maybe that’s not the healthiest mindset – but it’s how I feel.

Luckily, 99% of the time I don’t have this conflict, but lately it’s been popping up in my life like those gofers in the arcade game where you whack them on the head.

What do you think?

Anyway, don’t make this mistake! Focus on who you’re writing to, and you’re already ahead of the curve.

Till next time,

David