Small Business Marketing Series:

The Power of Small Business Marketing Mistakes

by Jennifer McCay

I think it's fair to say that most of us entrepreneurial types take real pride in what we do -- putting our blood, sweat and tears into the services we provide. That's a noble trait (in my humble opinion, anyway) because it means that our clients get excellent results from us.

But if you're at all like me, you're probably guilty of, well, feeling guilty when you make an unintentional faux pas.

Again, that's a testament to the quality of your work, but it might be hurting your marketing as well -- because if you wait for absolute perfection, you'll never actually send out that mailing, make that cold call or send out the first issue of the ezine you've been planning on publishing for months and months.

Why perfection can be paralyzing

As my colleagues past and present will tell you, I'm known as something of a stickler; I demand the very best copywriting and graphic design from the folks I work with, and nothing goes out until it has my seal of approval. Nothing whatsoever. [I've even been called Anne L. Retentive by those who appreciate that side of me :) -- yep, like the character from the Dilbert cartoons.)]

But the lesson I had to learn in order not to tear my own hair out in my marketing career is that nothing -- that's right, no marketing tool that you ever create -- will ever be 100% perfect the first time around (maybe 99%, but not 100%).

No matter how many levels of quality checking you have in place, you will always come up with a better idea just as the files are being sent to the printer.

Maybe the parameters of the job will change after you have put postage on all the envelopes.

Or, quite frankly, 6 professional writers, editors and proofreaders can all check the same marketing tool for mistakes, find dozens of last-minute changes and miss the easiest one to catch, which you notice after it's too late to do anything about it.

Oh, how it hurts.

Back in my catalog days, I would eagerly await the latest issue my team prepared, and without fail, after getting my personal copy of my "baby," on the first, totally random page I would open up to, I would spot a typo, an extra space, wording that could have been clearer -- nothing that would seriously affect the sales results, but you can bet I was still unhappy.

But by the time I received my copy of the catalog, so had millions of Europeans who were eager to find out what was inside.

Did that small set of mistakes turn them off? I am sure that there are people who spotted the errors, but it's a very small subsection of the vast target audience the catalog was given to.

Would I fix the mistakes before printing if I could do it all over? You bet! And of course I instigated ways to prevent those problems the next time around, so quality soared.

But it was also important to set a time limit on the problem-solving so that my team could get on with the business of the next major campaign.

Why? Because in this crazy business called marketing, if you're not out there trying something to get your message into the hands of the people who need what you offer, you're not giving yourself the chance to succeed.

You're not contacting prospects who might need what you offer.

You're not seeing if your campaign as a whole actually works.

You are paralyzed by the fear of not being 110% perfect.

Mistakes are opportunities

Marketing is one of the few things you can do in which 2 diametrically opposed things happen all at once:

1) On the one hand, you want to get it right for as many people as possible the first time you send out an ezine or send out those postcards to prospects. The more you get right the first time, the better for your bottom line right away, of course.

2) Every prospect you don't reach helps you learn. Hindsight truly is 20/20, and in marketing, you can learn from every campaign "mistake" that you make so that the next time around, you can apply your knowledge and try out something new.

If you don't test, tweak and test some more when you send out campaigns, you aren't getting the maximum return on your marketing investment. And you aren't using your creativity to come up with new solutions that might work even better than the tried-and-true old ideas.

In other words, mistakes help you grow.

Flaws make you human

As much as we all strive for perfection, a little flaw or two never hurt your marketing. And more than that, you can use the funny little things that happen to you to your advantage.

Did a vendor you work with mess up an order? Turn that goof into a reason for a "My printer goofed, so you can save" promotion for your business.

Have you had an awful experience with a colleague? Turn that negative into a positive by using the subject for your next ezine article on "What not to do when you ..." -- in other words, use that lousy situation to help others.

Or maybe you're the one who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and fell face down in the snow before you'd had your breakfast. It might have no relevance for your prospects. But then again, it might.

When people seek out new vendors, they of course want the most bang for their buck, on the one hand. But they also generally want to know, like and trust the firms they spend their money with.

Sure, you shouldn't brag about critical mistakes you've made in the past that wreaked major havoc for clients (though someone I considered working with once did just that and, alas, did not get the job in question). But showing that you're human too can be an excellent way to get your prospects to relate to you.

As a small business owner, you give a personal touch to every bit of work you provide. If showing that side of yourself also means sharing a minor flaw or two now and again in order to get your name out to more prospects, so be it.

You know what they say -- no risk, no reward. That's as true for marketing as anything else. So what's holding YOU back?

All content copyright 2004-2008 by Jennifer McCay and AvenueEast.com

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