Yes, they may be running ads that are pulling in leads or customers.  And yes, they may be writing a regular column for their local newspaper so they are perceived as the expert in their industry.  And yes, they may even be doing a pretty good job of marketing on a regular basis to their prospect list.

So if they are doing all of these things “right,” how are they sabotaging their success?  Well there are lots of ways.
Following are just a few of the ways small business owners unknowingly sabotage their own success.

(1) They have not taken the time to develop a marketing plan.

A plan focuses your efforts and allows you to make the most of your marketing budget.  Unfortunately, you can market without a plan.  Yes, you read that right.  You can do it, and people do market without marketing plans everyday.

But that does not mean you should.  To make the most of your marketing efforts and budget, make sure you take the time each year to create a plan.

(2)  They don’t have written goals.

Smart business owners have written goals and objectives for what they want to achieve with their business and for each of their marketing activities. I know this sounds b-o-r-i-n-g, but it’s a fact.

There is proof that people who put their goals into writing have a higher success rate than those who do not.  Plus, how can you develop a plan if you don’t have concrete objectives?  You need a clear vision and target to aim for. You can’t possibly determine what marketing or how much marketing you need if you don’t know what you are aiming for.

(3) They have a short-term attitude.

They are reactive in nature, and while on the surface it appears they are doing a lot of marketing, they are not doing anything consistently or long enough to make an impact. Running an ad or sending out your newsletter a few times and giving up when you don’t get immediate results is worse than doing nothing at all.

How so?  Because at least when you do nothing it doesn’t cost you any money.  Pulling the plug too soon costs you money.  And statistics show it takes somewhere between three and 10 exposures to a message for the average consumer to notice it and take action.  So it is quite possible your audience was just beginning to take notice right about the time you threw in the towel!

(4) They don’t know their USP.

Probably the worst way business owners sabotage their marketing efforts without even realizing it, is to NOT have a clear Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

The greatest marketing plan in the world will not be effective if you have not clearly defined why someone should buy your product or service instead of all the other products or services available to them.

If you have not figured out what is unique and better about your product or service, and found a compelling way to communicate this in everything you do, you can market ’til the cows come home and you will be wasting your time and your money

10 Tips to Banish Marketing Sabotage

(1)  Develop a marketing plan. Make sure you make it your number one priority to develop a marketing plan every year.

(2)  Write objectives. Write at least one objective that states what results you would like to achieve with your business over the next year.  And, write at least one objective for every marketing activity you undertake, that states what results you would like to achieve from that activity over the next year.

(3)  Stay the course. Check in on your progress toward your objectives every three to six months, but give your plan a good nine to 12 months to work.

(4)  Determine your unique selling proposition and make sure it is represented clearly and in a compelling way in everything you do.

(5)  Don’t try to be “everything to everyone.”  Focus on a few specific benefits and a specific audience.

(6)  Track all of your marketing activities so you know exactly what is working and what is not working.

(7)  Don’t rely on one marketing activity. Employ a mix of several marketing activities to reach more people more times.

(8)  Create a system to help you stay on track with your marketing activities every month and to help you plan ahead for future activities.

(9)  Create a realistic budget based on a percentage of your projected revenue, or the dollars you have available for marketing and stick to it.  Marketing is an investment in your business. You have to spend enough to make progress but not more than your business can financially support.

(10)  Understand your environment.  The economy, competition, the strength of your particular industry, your prospects’ situation.  You have to understand them all so you can create an effective plan to either overcome obstacles or take advantage of opportunities.

Follow these guidelines and your business stands a much greater chance of succeeding.  All of these activities are part of a good marketing plan. And no business that wants to succeed should be without one.

What is it?

Sending email. How many email messages do you send in a day? I recently went back and counted the messages in my Sent folder. I use several email accounts, but in just one of them I found an average of 10-12 messages a day. That’s 70-84 message per week!

Two Chances for Free Promotion

Did you realize every time you send out an email, you have two opportunities to market your business?

#1 With Your Email Address

Take a look at the email address you’re using for business. Are you using an email address such as “crazyjane@yahoo.com” or “fitbodyhunk@hotmail.com”?

Okay, so I’m poking a bit of fun, but you’d be surprised at some of the email addresses I see. Granted some of them may be reserved for ezine subscriptions, but I also receive a lot of email from small business owners with these types of email addresses.

So what’s wrong with this?

Well, for one, they are missing out on a free marketing opportunity. When you use an email address such as debbie@10stepmarketing.com  you have the opportunity to get repeat exposure for your company name with every email you send out.

You Can Build Your Brand and Business

What, everyone you send email to already knows your business name? That’s okay. It’s good reinforcement. And it doesn’t cost a dime, so why not do it? Plus, it presents a much more professional image. It says you are a real business. Even if you are sending out your emails while wearing your pajamas in your home office.

Use Your Web Site Domain Email Addresses

Ideally your web site domain should be the same as your business name. And you web hosting should come with at least a handful of free email addresses. It’s fairly easy to set up, but if you’re not sure, check with your host. Odds are they’ve addressed it in their FAQs or online help.

#2 Use An Email Signature

The second way you can market for free is with your email signature.

Even if you don’t have a web site, or if your web site address is not the same or similar to your business name, you can easily take advantage of this.

Set It Up Once … Use It Everyday

Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express (and probably other email software as well) offer a Signature option you can program so every email you send is signed off with a consistent signature.

Create Your Own Personal Signature

You will want to consider including some of the following information in your email signature. I wouldn’t suggest including all of this information or your signature will be too long. Pick what’s important to you, and include information that represents how you want people to contact you.

• Your First and Last Name
• Your Title (if appropriate)
• Your Business Name
• Your Tagline
• Your Email Address
• Your Web Site Address (include the http:// so it becomes a live link)
• Your Phone Number
• Your Fax Number
• Your Snail Mail Address
• An Invitation to Subscribe to Your E-newsletter, Ezine or
• Receive a Free Report (or any other free information you provide)

Following is an example of the email signature I include on every email I send out:

Debbie LaChusa
The 10stepmarketing System
“If you can answer 10 questions, you can
successfully market your business!”
619-334-8590 phone
619-334-8591 fax
debbie@10stepmarketing.com

http://www.10stepmarketing.com

Subscribe to the free 10stepmarketing Ezine
to receive weekly marketing how-to articles,
low-cost marketing ideas, tips and advice at

http://www.10stepmarketing.com

It Equals 70-80 Free Promos a Week!

By signing off all your emails with an email signature, you are constantly promoting your business. Plus your contact informationis right there if someone wants to get in touch with you. They don’t have to take the time to look up your phone number or web site address.

A good email signature also clearly communicates to people what your business is all about or what you do.

Who Knows Where Your Email May End Up?

You never know where one of your emails is going to end up. It may be forwarded to someone who could just become your next subscriber or client.

Build Web Site Traffic With Special Promos

You can also use your signature to build traffic for your web site by inviting people to visit your site to get a special report or to subscribe to your e-newsletter.

You can even use it to announce new products or promotions.  In fact, I just changed mine today to promote my new Extreme Marketing Makeover program.

Your Email Address Format

Make sure the email address you are using is formatted something like this: yourname@yourdomain.com

How To Set Up Your Email Signature

If you use Microsoft Outlook, simply go to the Tools option on your toolbar, click on Options, and then Mail Format. You’ll see Signatures down at the bottom of the window. You can set up one, or as many as you want. You select the one you want to use as your default and it will automatically be added to all your email messages.

By doing these two things, you will be building your brand and your business without spending any extra time or money.

No matter how big or small the project, the Lone Ranger handles 100% of it. Either because they’re afraid to let go of control or because they feel they can’t afford to hire help. Can you relate? I know I can!

So what’s wrong with doing everything yourself? Well it’s tough to grow your business if you’re busy managing every single detail. I know it’s a bit scary to let go of control or to consider actually hiring help, but I also know it’s necessary if you want to grow your business to its fullest potential.

Take my 10-question quiz to determine if YOU are a Lone Ranger. And don’t worry if you are, I’ve got some suggestions to help you rid yourself of this business-stifling affliction!

1. Do you work alone?

2. Do you feel no one can do your work quite as well as you?

3. Do you often feel there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done?

4. Do you maintain your own website?

5. Do you do your own accounting and billing?

6. Do you write your own sales and marketing copy?

7. Do you get your own mail?

8. Do you buy your own office supplies?

9. Do you create or deliver all your products and services by yourself?

10. Do you fulfill and ship all your sales yourself?

I think you can see this list could go on and on and on, but you get the idea. So if you answered “Yes” to most or all of these questions, guess what, YOU ARE A LONE RANGER! That’s okay, I’ve been one, too.

When your business is small you have to wear many hats because you can’t afford to hire help. But at what point do you make a decision to start delegating tasks to someone else? ANSWER: When the time you’re spending on administrative tasks involved in keeping your business running prevents you from spending time growing your business.

As a business owner, you should aim to spend at least 60% of your time marketing. You are the BEST person to market your product or service. And marketing is the only way your business will grow and flourish. So if you’re too busy paying bills, getting the mail, responding to email and running out to pick up office supplies, then guess what? You don’t have time to market. And your business cannot grow.

So what’s a Small Business Lone Ranger to do? Here are 6 tips:

1. Make a list of all the tasks that don’t require your specific expertise or talent (things like sorting mail, buying office supplies, and filing).

2. Make a second list of the tasks that consume a lot of your time but are OUTSIDE your specific area of expertise (things like maintaining your web site or managing your business finances and accounting).

3. Determine how many hours per week you spend doing these tasks.

4. Determine what additional sales and marketing, or other business-building activities you would have time for if you didn’t have to do these other tasks.

5. Estimate how many additional clients or sales you could generate with this extra time spent on marketing and building your business.

6. Make a decision to hire an assistant, bookkeeper, web site manager or whatever specialists are appropriate to handle these tasks. Determine what you can afford based on your results in Tip Number 5.

I know you’re probably wondering how you’ll be able to afford it. But really, we can’t afford NOT to hire help. Unless we are satisfied with keeping our business small. And don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that — I’ve done it for seven years. But if you have a bigger vision (like I do now), then you need a team to help you make that vision a reality.

To start with, your team should include an assistant to do the work that is not a good use of your time. This doesn’t have to be a full-time employee; I’m starting out with someone just a few hours a week. You’ll also want to get a bookkeeper and a CPA to manage your finances — they’ll not only free you up from your accounting tasks, they’ll also help you keep more of what you do make.

So take a moment to get a clear vision of what kind of business you want to create. And if that vision is larger than you can accomplish on your own, take the six steps above to get a team to help you make it a reality.

In my opinion it is certainly possible to be too creative for your own good. What exactly do I mean by that? Let me share a very public example to explain.

My example comes from the reality television show, “The Apprentice.” Okay, so I admit it, I LOVE that show. I’m not much of a reality TV fan, but there’s something about watching these teams compete on business challenges week in and week out that intrigues and entertains me.

Quite often they are given marketing-related tasks on the show. Let’s face it, marketing is one of THE most important jobs you’ll ever have in business. If you can do it well, your business will more than likely do well.  If you can’t market well, your business is in trouble.

In a recent episode of “The Apprentice” the task was to create a TV commercial for Dove Body Wash. The teams were instructed to come up with an “out of the box” 30-second spot to promote the product. The result?

Both teams created garbage! I guess some may argue they certainly did think “out of the box,” and both teams tried to justify that’s what they did, but in the end, they failed miserably at their number one task: to sell the product!

And that’s what I think happens to many marketers who try to be too creative. They lose sight of the fact their job is to sell a product or service. To do that effectively, your marketing has to be one word: relevant.

You can be as clever or creative as you want, but in the end if your marketing is not relevant to the product and to those who are most likely to buy it, you have failed.

Look, I realize we have to be creative to capture our audience’s attention. After all we are trying to cut through a sea of marketing clutter. I just wish more marketers tried harder to connect with their audience vs. simply entertain them.

Heck, I sometimes wonder if marketers even know who their audience is. This definitely came into play in The Apprentice with both teams showing men using Dove Body Wash in their commercials. C’mon, it doesn’t take a lot of sense to recognize this product is for women! But because they were so focused on being clever, they lost sight of this very basic fact.

If I can leave you with one thought it is this: Identify and know your audience and then aim to connect with them and jump into the conversation they are already having in their head about your product or service.

If you can do this, you will be effective in capturing their attention, AND selling your product or service.

Is it okay to set the plan aside for awhile? After all you’ve got enough business to keep you busy. And, you’re not sure you could handle additional clients right now anyway.

While marketing may not seem like a necessary activity when your business is going gang-busters, it’s only a matter of time before your lack of marketing starts to impact your business.

Staying on top of your marketing plan, even when you’re busy, ensures you always have a pipeline full of prospects and clients into your business.

While you may be busy right now, if you stop marketing for the next three months, you may find yourself high and dry when it comes to clients, because you’ve stopped the flow.

As an independent professional myself, I can totally relate to being too busy to market. It seems the days are never long enough to get everything on my to-do list done.  But as a marketing professional I know I can’t afford to NOT get my marketing done.

So what’s a busy gal (or guy) to do?!?

Here are 5 suggestions … these are things I do and recommend to all my clients in my 10stepmarketing System.

1. If you haven’t already, create a marketing calendar.

Schedule all of your marketing activities in the calendar according to how frequently you planned to do them in your marketing plan.

If you planned to do something monthly, enter it on the calendar once each month. Weekly? Enter it four times per month. Do this for every planned activity.

2. Hang your marketing calendar over your desk on a bulletin board or on the wall.

Make a habit of looking at it every morning. This way you won’t have the problem of “out of site out of mind.”

I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve had whose marketing plans have ended up in a file folder in a drawer. You’re certainly NOT going to grow your business that way!

3. Try incorporating your marketing activities into your weekly and daily to-do list.

Enter the activities as to-do tasks in your calendar or PDA just like all your appointments and other business activities.

I do this with all my marketing activities. I use Microsoft Outlook and a Pocket PC and it’s the only way I know I’ll keep myself on track. If something is on my calendar, I treat it like any other meeting or appointment and I do it.

For example, every Wednesday, a little notice pops up to remind me to write my weekly ezine. If that didn’t happen I’d either be writing it on Monday’s at midnight, or it wouldn’t get done.

4. Pick one day per month to review your marketing calendar in detail and to look three months ahead.

What is coming up that you need to prepare for now? What do you need to transfer into your to-do list or PDA to make sure you don’t forget to do it?

I usually do this at the end of the month when I’m doing all my month-end work … things like running sales reports, doing billing, and updating my marketing tracking reports.

Make it a habit to review your marketing at the same time you do these tasks. After a few months you won’t even have to think about it anymore, it’ll become a habit.

5. Consider hiring an assistant or support person to help.

If they can take some of the tasks off your plate that really don’t require your expertise, it will free you up to focus on what I call “revenue producing activities.”

These are things like working with clients, creating products and services and marketing. I couldn’t believe the difference it made when I hired some help.

I didn’t think I could afford it, but now I don’t see how I lasted so long without help!

When you find a way to get back on track with your marketing and you do it on regular basis, it really does become a part of the way you do business.

Suddenly it doesn’t seem like marketing anymore. It’s just what you do to run your business. That’s when it becomes effortless.

And, that’s when you know your business will be continue to be busy and profitable for the long-haul.

When I say eliminate, I mean … take them out of your prospect’s consideration set for your product or service category.  Make it so your prospects ONLY think of your business, product or service when they are contemplating making a purchase.  That way you get their business, instead of your competition making the sale.

What this means is if you sell widgets, you want your prospects to only think of your widgets when they are thinking of buying widgets.  This is pretty easy to do if your business is not in a competitive industry.

But let’s suppose there are all kinds of businesses selling what you are selling, or filling the same consumer or business need you are filling.

How can you make sure your prospects ONLY think of you — and therefore only BUY from you — and not all those other companies?

Answer:  By thoroughly understanding those competing businesses and then doing one of two things:

(1)  Finding a position in the category you can own.

This will separate you from all the other businesses and will make you uniquely qualified in the eyes of your prospect to fill their need.

This usually requires finding a specific market niche you can focus on, or finding a specific product or service attribute or benefit, that is of value to your prospects, that none of your competitors can claim or are currently promoting.

This puts you in a class of your own and virtually eliminates the competition. No one does exactly what you do. Or in the quite the way you do it.

(2)  By turning your competitors into “co-opitors.”

What the heck is a “co-opitor?”  It is a competitor that you turn into a partner or a cooperator. Are there businesses or individuals with whom you could partner, with the idea of referring business to each other?

For example, a wellness coach could partner with a weight watchers clinic or a health club or a massage therapist. All of these practitioners are selling improved health and well being, but they can also be positioned as complementary services.

Or, let’s say you are a web site designer and you decide to focus primarily on working with small businesses (a market niche). You could create a partnership with another web site designer who has decided to focus on large corporations.

If you both agree to only take on business that fits your identified niche, and to refer business outside your niche to the partner, you both win.

You can partner with other businesses in your exact business in this manner, by identifying niches, by geographic area served, or by size or type of clients served.

And you can partner with businesses in different categories that fill a similar customer need by agreeing to work together to help each other get customers.

There is not a business out there that cannot effectively use one of these two strategies to significantly reduce their competition.  So figure out which strategy fits your business best, and make it a priority to eliminate your competition this year.