Lawn Care Marketing Deadly Sin #1 of 7

This week, I’m going to share with you a series of messages I wrote some time ago regarding what I feel are 7 of the deadliest sins most small businesses make. As the name suggests, it’s a 7 part series so you’ll be getting one each day over the next week or so.

I hope as you get these messages that you pay close attention to each deadly sin and that you use it to analyze your own business and the things you’re doing. If you think you’re guilty of these mistakes, then make the necessary changes. If you’re not, then pat yourself on the back and keep doing what you’re doing because believe it or not, you’re well ahead of the rest of the small business pack!

Okay, here’s the first part of this special series.

The first deadly mistake made by many small businesses is trying to copy ‘Big Business’ marketing tactics.

Many small business owners have the false idea that if the ‘big boys’ are doing it then it must work. They see Coca-Cola running feel good ads on television. They read a magazine and see ads that have a full color picture of a product, the company’s name, and a catchy tagline.

What many fail to realize however, is that while these ads MIGHT be successful (and I bet most of them aren’t!), most of them were created by ad agencies that are more concerned about adding to their own portfolio of creative ads than they are about making you money with your ads. Or winning this year’s advertising awards. Or even more concerned about padding their own bottom line than they are with padding yours.

As a small business owner, your advertising dollars are precious and you really can’t afford to get caught up in this! You need to implement marketing that can be tracked and held accountable, something that the big boys can’t do with the type of advertising they run.

So how do you avoid getting caught up in this deadly mistake? First of all, the next time you see an ad from one of the ‘big boys’, remind yourself that they have millions of dollars to through at wasted advertising. You don’t.

Second, remember that the advertising dollars you spend today, must be returned tomorrow in the form of profits and so your marketing efforts must be focused on this. In the coming days we’ll talk about some specific things you can do to make sure the dollars you spend today, come back to you tomorrow.

Well, that’s it for today. I’ll be back again tomorrow with another deadly sin that hopefully you’re avoiding like the plague!

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