One of the Top Five Marketing Mistakes You Made in 2007!

by Luis Eguiluz

As the new year rolls in, many of us are busy trying to define our budgets, projections and marketing strategies for the next year.

That being  the case, this will be the first of a series of five articles that will discuss the five top marketing mistakes you made or may have made in 2007 and how not to repeat them in 2008.

Top Marketing Mistake #1 - Believing that everyone is part of YOUR market

If you believe everyone is part of your market, all I will say is that it is very likely that you have already lost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in revenues. If you already have or did a marketing campaign based on this belief, you also have lost most, if not all, of your hard earn money that you invested in this campaign.

Although this mistake is pretty big, it is very easy to understand why most business owners, specially new ones, make it. I too made this mistake when I first started.

So why is believing that everyone is part of YOUR market a big, money-losing mistake? Lets find out.

What is the Market?

First of all lets understand what is the market? The market, as defined by wikipedia is: "...a social arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to discover information and carry out a voluntary exchange of goods or services"

In other words, I have this product, you need it, you can afford it, so you buy it. Simple right? Well it may seem so, but note that I used two very important words: need and afford.

I may need your service, but if I can't afford it, no matter how much money  (in marketing) you spent on me or how long you try to persuade me to buy, I will not buy from you. On the other hand I may have the money, but if I don't need your service right now, I won't buy.

So YOUR market, are the people or companies who need and can afford your services or products.

This is the reason why not everyone can be part of your market.

But My Products and Services Can be Used by Anyone

You may now be saying to yourself:

• I sell greeting cards, "everyone needs greeting cards"
• I have a restaurant, "everyone needs to eat, right?"
• I own a body shop, "everyone needs their car serviced"
• I have a law firm, "everyone will need a lawyer... someday"

The mistake here is that we assume "everyone" with the need is part of our market and that is just not the case. As we learn previously, its not only the need, but also can they afford it and vice versa. They can afford it, but do they need it?

Defining Your Target Market

So who is YOUR target market? I honestly can say I do not know. Only you can know and only you can define it because only you have the experience in regards to your business and customers to really determine who your target market is.

So how do you go about doing so? Well, in that I can help. Basically you need to take one hour out from your busy schedule, sit down and define the who, what, where, why and when of the people or companies that would be your ideal customer.

Now, I am not saying to define your "dream" customer, but your "ideal" customer.

1. Who they are? Age, sex, location, income, etc.
2. What do they like/look for before making a purchase?
3. Where are they from/located? Local, national, city, suburbs, etc.
4. Why do they buy the products/services. What are their reasons? What is their justification?
5. When do they usually buy/more prone to buy. During the holidays? On weekends? During the week?

Understanding all of this about YOUR ideal customer will help you define your target market.

Since I want to help you, below is a link to a PDF file that will help you define your target market by helping you define your ideal customer.

• Download the Define My Target Market Table (PDF)

The reason why the above PDF document only has two columns, one for target market # 1 and one for #2, is because we typically tell our clients to start out with one or two target markets and then expand to others as they see success in their marketing campaign for those initial markets.

I do want to mention, because I always get asked, that defining your target market does not mean you won't do business with anyone outside that target market who has the need and can afford you. Of course not, the more business you get, the better. What this just means is that your marketing budget, your effort and time will be more efficiently spent by concentrating on those markets that will bring you a higher return-on-investment.

In Conclusion

So even though you may have made this mistake in 2007, maybe even in 2006 and 2005, we hope that this article will help you to avoid it 2008.

At EOgroup, we specialize in helping our clients understand their target markets and use new, modern marketing strategies and technologies to minimize the impact to their bottom line and increase their return-on-investment.

If you like to learn more, take the time to request your free one-hour consultation.

We hope that you were successful in 2007 and become even more successful in 2008, specially now that you know how to define your target market!