1. NOT HAVING A WEB SITE/ HAVING AN AMATEUR WEB SITE
You've heard time and time again that you are not considered to be in business until you have a web site and a proper one at that. Ensure that your web site incorporates beauty and brain. Meaning, ensure that your web site not only looks good, but is smart by way of having all the most important information, is easy to navigate and is clear and precise about what your company does without making potential consumers read an essay online.
2. NO BRAND CONSISTENCY
In order to remain TOM (Top of Mind) you need to be sure that the public is seeing the same logo and seeing/hearing the same message over and over again. That said, while changing the colours of your logo slightly so that it works well with your ad design may seem like a brilliant idea, you're actually committing branding suicide. How is a potential client supposed to recognize your logo if it continuously changes? You may decide at some point to change your company description -- if that's true you need to ensure that you change your company description in previous marketing efforts as well to ensure that the message is seen or heard over and over. In a nutshell, ensure that your logo, your company colours, your slogan/tag line, your "voice" and yes, even your company description is the same no matter where the public may happen to come across them.
3. NO MARKETING PLAN
This is perhaps one of the biggest marketing blunders we see on a regular basis -- Wedding Professionals blindly throwing their money at advertising options and marketing ideas without having a concrete plan. This is extremely dangerous for your business not to mention costly. Having a marketing plan will help you determine the direction in which you want the company to go/the goals you want to achieve for that particular year and what marketing measures will best help you to get there (not to mention what marketing measures you can realistically afford and what 'grassroot" options will give you similar success). Without a marketing plan you are essentially sitting in a barrel stranded in the middle of an ocean without a clue as to how to get to land.
4. BECOMING AN ADVERTISING VICTIM
This boo-boo goes along with not having a marketing plan but goes one step further. Having a marketing plan is great, but not doing your diligent research as to your marketing options could drown you. So often we see wedding professionals throw their money at wedding magazines, at online wedding sites or blogs and more without really knowing what they can or will do for them. They base their decisions on popularity or merely their target market (which, don't get me wrong, is important). What's worse, we've seen wedding professionals replicate the marketing efforts that seemed to have worked for others. Ouch. Don't be an advertising victim. Realize that what works for one may not work for others. And do your proper research.
Request media kits from all potential marketing sources. Look at a magazine's distribution numbers, where they're distributed, who their readership is, do they connect to their online counterpart and what is their online audience like. What do you get for the price etc. With regards to online marketing, request a media kit as well! Look at the number of their monthly viewers and how many of those are returning visitors and how many are unique visitors, where their viewers reside, how many females to males and how involved online is the wedding site (ie do they Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.) And with all advertising mediums what other options do you have to leverage your marketing dollars (ie) Real Wedding postings/editorial, etc.
5. NOT PROOFREADING YOUR MARKETING MATERIAL
If your not looking over your mateereal for speling, grammer, mesage, etc over and over before going to print or online... your in huje truble.
6. MARKETING SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN'T OR DON'T DELIVER
Don't make promises you can't keep. Don't use images that aren't your personal work. And don't pretend to be something you're not. Marketing under false pretenses in order to get those clients/consumers that you wouldn't normally attract will only make you look silly and scattered in the long run. Know your niche/demographic and market to them well rather than making that stretch into unknown territory simply to expand your horizons or to compete with a professional you admire/envy.
7. TWO MUCH WHITE SPACE
You've likely seen it. An exquisite photo that nabs attention, creates an emotional response and just plain spells out what that professional does. Then next to it, above it or under it is a glaring white space with minimal text and a logo. Some of you may wonder what could possibly be wrong with this? Take a quick glance at the said ad again. What do you notice? The photo, right. What else draws your eye. Nothing. Right again. Which means that the most important message has been overshadowed by the photo.
White space can either help your advertisement or murder it. It's important to find the proper balance. Leaving too much white space will only detract from your ad and drowns the message that your audience should be focused on. Let the photo grab the attention and direct the audience to the message.
8. UNCLEAR CALL TO ACTION
This is a marketing faux-pas that should be avoided at all cost. For those of you who are unsure as to what a "Call to Action" is...essentially this is a point on your advertisement that tells the potential client/consumer what to do next. However being unclear with your Call to Action could spell disaster in terms of your ad's efficiency. What do you want your audience to do next? Call you? Visit your web site for more info? Email you? Be sure to be very clear about what direction you want them to take and most importantly ensure that you have all the proper contact info on your ad to do so!
9. TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU!
Having an award list a mile long is fabulous. The fact that you've been in business for 20 years is fantastic. The thought that you love puppies and long walks on the beach is adorable. But it doesn't necessarily sell your service or product to a client.
Now, we're not saying don't mention your awards or how long you've been reputably serving your clients. These may be important bits of information to select clients/consumers. What we mean is that droning on and on about yourself, your experience and your hobbies won't help your audience personalize with you but will simply cause them to zone out or ignore the most important parts of your experience, etc. Your potential clients want to see and hear what YOU can do FOR THEM. This is what they will focus on the most out of everything in your marketing material. So be sure to make your marketing material less of a mouthpiece and more of a service announcement.
10. NOT INTEGRATING ALL OF YOUR MARKETING METHODS
Your print marketing has to direct your audience to your online marketing (web site, blog, etc). Your online marketing has to direct your audience to your social networking efforts (twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, etc). Your Social networking efforts have to direct your audience back to your online efforts (web site, blog, etc) and to your print marketing ("check out our ad in...", "as seen in...."). Your publicity campaign has to direct your audience to your online marketing (web site, blog, etc).
If all your marketing channels are not properly connecting (or worse, not connecting at all!) you are not making the most of your marketing dollars and therefore are not ensuring that you are everywhere all at once and are being found by accident and not merely by those who are looking for you specifically.
Avoiding these marketing pitfalls will bring you one step closer to successfully achieving your marketing ambitions.
GOOD LUCK!
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