No matter how good you are at what you do, or how good your product is – if no one’s buying, you ain’t flying!
Indeed, when it comes to marketing any business or service, most people take one of two traditional paths…
1.) They “competitor shop” and look at what everyone else is doing - then simply decide to do the same thing
2.) They lower their prices in an effort to undercut the competition
Of course, the problem with #1 is if everyone else is doing it wrong, so are you.
Remember the wisdom of what your mom used to ask you: “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, does that mean you should?”
And the problem with #2 is that there’s always someone else willing to come along and undercut YOUR price. It’s a race to the bottom – and that’s no way to boost your bottom line.
The other mistake too many businesses make is embracing “brand” or “image” advertising.
That’s the notion that if you just put your name out there often enough and generate a “good feeling” with the public though cute or special-effect ads the world will beat a path to your door.
But unless you have the advertising budget of Coca-Cola, McDonalds, FedEx, Microsoft, GEICO or Apple, that strategy (a) won’t work and/or (b) will bankrupt you.