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ans Serif">While it's important to know what to do while marketing your business, it's just as important to know what not to do. In this article,   we list more of the most wasteful and common marketing mistakes.  (See the first article here).

ans Serif" color="#008000">8. DIRECTING YOUR MARKETING TO EVERYONE BUT TO NO ONE IN PARTICULAR
ans Serif">Many small businesses have failed to determine who their best prospects are, where those prospects live or how to reach them effectively and efficiently. This is a critical first step in any successful marketing strategy.

ans Serif">By skipping this step, they resort to running vague and generic one-step ads in mass

media, such as local newspapers, magazines, radio, television, cable, Val-pak mailings, Internet web sites, etc.

ans Serif">Their hope is that by presenting their generic message about their business to the greatest number of people, the result will be the highest number of sales. Wrong. Unfortunately for them, effective marketing doesn't work that way.

ans Serif">The fact is, in most cases only a small percentage of the readers/listeners/viewers of mass media will have a need for your product or service at any given time. Some business owners may have a hard time believing this, but nevertheless, it's true. Everyone does not need or want your product or service.

ans Serif">By not targeting your marketing to your very best and logical prospects, you are wasting most of your marketing dollars on people who have little or no interest in your product or service.

ans Serif">If there are only 100 true prospects for your product or service out of 10,000 possible readers of a publication, why would you want to spend thousands of dollars presenting your message over and over to the 9,900 non-prospects? Yet, this is the method most small business owners choose because they don't know that there is a much more cost-effective and profitable strategy.

ans Serif" color="#008000">9. WASTING YOUR MONEY ON IMAGE MARKETING
ans Serif">A major marketing mistake made by many small businesses is that they pour their marketing dollars into image marketing. Some of their marketing pieces may be clever, even humorous.

ans Serif">That kind of marketing rarely asks prospects to take action. The result? Wasted marketing dollars . . . vague ideas of who saw the marketing pieces . . . and frustration.

ans Serif">Giant corporations like Pepsi or Nike are interested in name recognition and a specific image for their brands. Therefore, they spend millions of dollars on creative, often fun marketing pieces designed to impress their target market with their image rather than to generate a direct or immediate sale.

ans Serif">Obviously your image and name recognition are important to the success of your small business. But even more important are immediate and steadily growing sales.

ans Serif">How can you determine if your marketing is primarily focused on image marketing? It is if each of your marketing pieces don't ask for immediate and specific action from your prospects.

ans Serif">This money-wasting and sales destroying marketing mistake is much more common than you may think.