Marketing Articles About Mistakes Search Results

1. Some Deadly Search Engine Marketing Sins. A lot of time and energy goes into developing an attractive website. The pitfalls of mediocrity can be avoided by paying attention to 3 common mistakes. Inadequate Keyword Research it pays to spend ... (09/04/08 09:00 PM)

2. 10 of the Millennium’s Best College Business Scandals. Having a higher education usually means making a higher income, but these ten deal snatchers have made an art form of pilfering available resources. Read and learn, but don’t repeat these mistakes unless you have foolproof alibis in place: 10. Cozy Relations Between Financial Aid Offices and Lenders The financial aid office used to be a [...] (09/04/08 09:00 PM)

3. Article marketing capture and captivate your target audience.. Conveying a specific message in a written article is no easy feat. Audience expectations fall on every point of the information spectrum. One of the biggest mistakes that article writers make is to tr... (09/03/08 09:01 AM)

4. Real Estate Marketing Strategy. The #1 Mistake agents make when conducting real estate marketing to FSBO's and Expired Listings is expecting them to convert immediat... (08/29/08 09:00 PM)

5. Learning from mistakes.?. Learning from mistakes.? Even the big ones. Especially the big ones. As a sales trainer, I spend a lot of time in front of crowds, and sharing stories is an important part of what I do. When I'm s... (08/27/08 09:00 PM)

6. Software and Failure.

   As Amy and run around like silly people packing up to head back to Boulder tonight, I stumbled upon two fantastic posts on the web.  Consider this your daily reading if you read nothing else.

   The first is titled Five Life-Changing Mistakes and How I Moved On by Julie Wainwright.  Julie is now the co-founder of SmartNow.com but is infamous for being the CEO of Pets.com.  Her post is personal and phenomenal.  She identifies five mistakes she made leading up to and during the simultaneous failure of Pets.com and her marriage.  She then describes - point by point - how she moved on.  The mistakes follow; you'll need to click through to her article to see how she moved on. (Thanks Heidi).

   1. Allowed others to define me.
   2. I built my image of myself on two main supporting pillars.  When those collapsed, I did too.
   3. I stopped believing in myself.
   4. I stopped taking care of myself.
   5. Allowing my head to rule my heart.

   The second is titled It's the Software, Not You in the NY Times by David Pogue.  If you've been following along at home you know that I've been deeply immersed in human computer interaction (HCI) during the past year.  Pogue gives several great examples and ends with "Why do software designers want their work to appear more complex instead of less? I just don't get why they don't get it. So the next time you're frustrated by software complexity, take heart; much of the time, it's not you. It's them. It's designers who have something on their mind other than software intelligence."  Right on!

   Both are worth reading and savoring.

   

   
   (07/31/08 09:01 PM)

7. How to Avoid Six Common Pitfalls of the Launch Process. Launching new products, services, or segments is the lifeblood of growth for most organizations. Yet, despite its importance, the launch process is often mishandled or assigned inadequate resources. Many of the mistakes that companies make are basic?yet frighteningly frequent and consistent across various types of businesses and industries. Here are six common fault lines in the launch process that very company should look out for. (06/10/08 09:00 PM)

8. Outlines - Hooray!.

   One of my jobs today is to prepare an outline for recompete #3. I've written about the importance of outlines in the past, and to my way of thinking, an outline is the very best tool you can have have for preparing a proposal. Beginners often skip the outlining stage, thinking that they can just dig in and start writing. Or that their proposal is too small to merit an outline. Big mistake. Because what happens when you work without an outline is that you end up with a mish-mosh of written material that is disorganized, doesn't flow, and may not be responsive to the requirements of your RFP/RFA.

   An outline is your friend. And the time you take to properly prepare it will pay off down the road. Here are some things to consider when preparing your outline:

   • Your RFP/RFA is your guide. Sometimes it will tell you exactly how your proposal should be organized, at least with respect to major headings. You may also be able to ferret out your first level of sub-headings from Section L (instructions), Section M (evaluation criteria) and/or Section C (statement of work).
   
   
   
   • Don't use too many levels. The more levels you have, the more difficult it will be for you/your team and for reviewers to follow your proposal. Personally, I like three levels:

   I. Major Heading

   A. First Sub-Heading

   (1) Sub-sub Heading

   Of course, some RFPs/RFAs will dictate the specific structure of your proposal. In such cases, you need to follow those instructions. 

   • Don't think of your outline as being carved in stone. Outlining is really an evolving process. I often change my outlines several times over the course of a proposal because I find -- after things have been written -- that they just don't fit where I thought they would.

   I've heard people say that they don't really know how to prepare an outline. That's not surprising because it's often not as easy as it sounds. It can be a frustrating exercise and can take time to get it right. But in the end, you'll be glad you spent the time.

   The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) has a useful section on developing outlines. Check it out  here.

   (04/24/08 09:01 AM)

9. What Not to Do for Email Marketing Done Right. Email marketers must keep in mind that a consumer who decides to opt in to the brand's email channel is likely a fan of that brand. Do not lose those consumers by making the following mistakes. (04/15/08 09:01 AM)

10. Prioritize Like a P&L. Today I was having lunch with a friend who is VP of Marketing for a local startup. Small budget, lots to do...how to prioritize? In my experience, when you're trying to grow revenue as fast as possible with little time, money and resources, it's important to think about the after-launch resources a program will take. Think about any program or initiative as an ongoing P&L. The best projects will have sustaining value, like a business that has sustaining profits. In fact, you should first think about the projects that have a clear and direct impact on revenue or cost savings. Can you answer the question: "This program/initiative will have an impact on our bottom line because..." The biggest mistake in selecting programs is the costs of sustainment. Usually things get set in motion that take human capital as part of the processes. The ideal projects are those that are set in motion, sustian and/or grow in impact over time and require little resources to sustain. Many projects I've launched that risked failure and often got orphaned are those that required ongoing program management time and processes. If it was part of an existing process it was easier to absorb. Creating new processes, owners, measures, reporting, etc. and sustaining all of this is an investment – COGS and Opex in a P&L. Sometimes it's worth it...but most of the time we underestimate the cost of sustainment. So, look for the projects that can 'blossom' on their own. For example, customer created... (10/19/07 09:00 PM)

11. Marketing History Day and What I love about YouTube.

    I'm in the middle of a book by Dr. Frank Lutz, "Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear", and came across a passage where he points to what he feels is one of the most effective political ads of all time, the "Daisy" ad for Lyndon Johnson's presidential run in 1964. It's a juxtaposition of a young child and nuclear war, which culminates in the statement "We must either love each other, or we must die." Wow. That pretty much spells it out.

    

    I'm a big fan of marketing history, especially when I can see it on YouTube and I'm a bigger fan of seeing current marketers pay attention to marketing history in their current campaigns. Today's marketing is FULL of slogans, campaigns, and poor execution that, had the one who devised the strategy in the first place done a bit of historical due diligence, they would not have committed the same mistakes.

    I was in a meeting recently where we were discussing a new marketing strategy (web 2.0 type stuff...) with a group of seasoned marketers around the table. I like to drag out historical marketing references from Marketing Classics in meetings like that, not because it makes me feel smart, but because so many of the current challenges we're trying to overcome and the prevailing 'new media' & new ideas are really rooted in time-tested ideals that if we just paid attention to, we'd be so much further ahead...

    Anyway, I digress. The point is, I brought the discussion around to 'marketing myopia', or 'what business are you really in here'... None of the marketers around the table could identify w/ marketing myopia, though they did grasp the concept of 'what business are you really in.'

    This type of disregard for marketing history is an issue. I'm thinking we need to coin a day "National Marketing History Day", perhaps Kotler's (May 27) or Levitt's (March 1) birthday or something. On that day, we'll read historical marketing articles and check out the 'marketing history' channel on you tube, and drink a bit of the The Real Thing (Coke - 1943).

    

    What do you think?

    
    (10/03/07 09:00 PM)

12. 10 Mistakes Managers Make During Job Interviews. http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/careerArticlesPost.html?post=138 (06/26/07 09:01 AM)

13. Product loyalty: consumers mistake familiarity with superiority. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070605-product-loyalty-consumers-mistake-familiarity-with-superiority.html (06/07/07 09:01 AM)

14. Lead qualification and scoring for better leads. The biggest mistake made by marketers is to give mere inquiries to a salesperson. When inquiries are handed off without being methodically qualified, it doesn’t take the sales department long to start viewing all marketing-generated “leads” with skepticism. For this... (02/28/07 09:00 AM)

15. Career Tiip #14: Show and Know Metrics. Once I was in a meeting at Dell, and someone said the company could stop on a dime. A colleague retorted, We’d stop because of a dime!” As funny as that is, this kind of agility is only possible in a metrics-oriented culture. Friends who have left Dell for new companies are amazed at how metrics-deficient their culture is. They are shocked how employees don’t understand the basics of a PL, and so they work to add KPIs into the business that feed the PL. As a result, these new employees are MVPs to executives because they speak their language. A little over a year ago I visited my undergrad college, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and met with the Dean of Business Marketing. I told him marketing graduates need to be more analytically-capable and trained than they were when I went to school. He agreed, and in fact they were in the midst of planning restructuring of the curriculum to focus on analytics. Demonstrating focus and proficiency in measurement will help your career. By showing a command of measuring your activities, you will appear in much better control of your area…and thus be given more responsibility. Executives will have more confidence in employees who can manage and measure, and are comforted by employees who can speak and present in their language. However, don’t make the mistake of getting stuck on the guard-rail of internal measurement. Balance your perspective with customer feedback, customer measures, and creative thinking. Make some principle-based... (01/23/07 09:01 PM)

16. Career Tip #9: Feed Others. This is a tip if you are a manager...it’s both a career tip and a management lesson. I learned a painful lessons early in my management career. It is foolish to try to control too much. First, I discovered I didn't have all the right answers (amazing!). But more importantly, the company couldn’t get as much done, my employees didn’t learn, and they became unmotivated when I micro-managed or took over from where they left off. Early in my career I had a web developer working for me who sent me a page he designed. Rather than making suggestions and letting him complete the project, I got into the code, made the changes myself and showed him the final product the way I wanted. I could see the frustration on his face, and a couple months later, he resigned. Perhaps every manager needs a jolting mistake like this to change behavior. It only needs to happen once. A leader needs to seed and cultivate great people who will make their vision of producing something they own. I soon realized that there’s an entrepreneur in EVERYONE and a leader’s job is to create a structure so they can exercise that entrepreneurial spirit. By the time I got to Dell I had learned this lesson, and as I built a team I got better and better at feeding others. I might feed them ideas, advice, tips, perspective, introductions, or whatever to help them accomplish. I put a goal out there and see... (01/16/07 09:00 AM)

17. Career Tip #5: Take Initiative Outside Your Triangle. If there’s one piece of advice I’d give anyone in any job who wants to be considered a ‘rockstar’ it is to take initiative. Be entrepreneurial. See opportunities to improve before you’re told to improve them. Look for new opportunities. Think outside your responsibilities. Mistakes are easily forgiven when you have an employee that is going to be ‘making plays’. Think about the expectations of your role and responsibilities as a triangle. Now, if you put a circle inside the triangle, representing what you accomplish, then there are some unfilled spots, and your performance is below expectations: If you fill the triangle you are meeting expectations, and are a “good” employee: But if you take that circle of accomplishments outside the triangle, outside what’s expected, outside your responsibilities, you are exceeding expectations. You become a rockstar, potentially an A player, and someone who will be considered to take on more responsibility: So what should you take on? Think about it this way: “do your boss’s job”. Consider taking initiatives in areas your boss has focus. Make sure these initiatives that will clearly make an impact, are measurable, are visible and helpful to others as well (they should if your boss is focused on the right things). In other words, if you go outside the boundaries of your responsibilities, choose to work on things that matter most to your company: your boss, your customers, and impact to the PL.... (01/13/07 09:00 PM)

18. [Entrepreneur] What Not To Do. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/print/0,2361,312661,00.html A seasoned entrepreneur reveals the 17 most common mistakes startups make and how to avoid them--plus, the 5 things you must do to ensure success.... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

19. Do Some Web Hosts Specialize in E-Commerce?. Almost any Web host will tell you that it's able to handle e-commerce. Take these claims with a grain of salt: E-commerce is a special application, and mistakes or problems can upset your customers an ...
    
    (08/27/06 09:02 PM)

20. Avoiding the More Common Mistakes in QuarkXPress. Figuring out how to use QuarkXPress takes time. Learning how to use it right takes even longer! Here are some of the more common mistakes that people make when they start dabbling in desktop publishi ...
    
    (08/25/06 09:02 AM)

21. The top five mistakes entrepreneurs make when they market. A riff I did at WorkHappy.net.... (08/19/06 09:00 PM)

22. Seth said it, were you listening?. It bears repeating:
    
    "If you're busy marketing like you've got my attention, you've already made a huge mistake." --Seth Godin
    
    Need some proactive material on what to do about it? Here: Unconverted Leads: What Do You Do With Them? By Sean D'Souza.
    
    

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    BTW: I feel compelled to share: I clicked on an untargeted banner ad yesterday. Don't know if I ever have before. Maybe I did when the web was young and I was curious. It was an ad for the new DVD set for Brisco County Jr. And that's going on my xmas list, no sale today. Now how many banners have I needed to ignore over the years just to find this one? (08/08/06 09:02 AM)

23. Seth Godin Q&A on Blogging and Marketing. Since I interviewed Guy (#2 marketing blog), I thought I'd ask Seth (#1 marketing blog) to answer some questions. I met Seth Godin in the early 90's searching for a book expert for advice as I wrote my first book. This was just before Seth became the marketing guru he is known as now (after Permission Marketing). He's a lot more busy and popular now, but he is as gracious to answer questions now as he was back then. (Note: Now that I have the top two bloggers, maybe I should interview all the other bloggers who have more popular blog than mine until I can get back to interviewing myself! #21 :-) Which blog posts have gotten you the most impact (not necessarily traffic, but actual personal or business impact), and why?Actually, it's not a post by post thing. There's no question in my mind that it's cumulative. Do a google search for MARKETING CHOCOLATE and there I am. Go figure. It adds up. And over time, it tells a story. You can't fib for four years...Here's how I'd summarize the main points in your books...feel free to modify these. Permission Marketing = customer is in control. Idea Virus = ignite consumer networks. Purple Cow = be remarkable. Marketing are Liars = tell a story. What's next? What else?I have actually tried to summarize my books at www.squidoo.com/seth {note from sam: there is a download there for Seth's new ebook, Flipping the Funnel} What are the three biggest mistakes... (07/29/06 02:28 PM)

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