Many people have a wonderful idea of a product that is needed in the market, and then spend all their money to create it. You need to research the market first to make sure there isn't already a similar product out there, and whether there is even a need for your product.
Conduct market research, hold focus groups and only make a small run of your product – a few hundred or so – to test your target market with. This can save you a lot of money and heartache in the long run.
Mistake #2: Thinking that the product will market itself
Many small business owners think their product is so great that they don't need to do any marketing at all – people will flock to you. That's just not true, and I can't think of one example of where it was true. Everyone thinks it's because the “right product” just hasn't been invented yet, but unfortunately, that's not the case. It just won't work that way. How can people flock to something they've never heard of?
You must consistently market your product, which means you need to create a marketing plan. You must define your target market, your unique selling point that distinguishes you from your competition; you must develop a marketing action plan and decide on a marketing budget. These are just the bare-bones basics of a marketing plan. You need some kind of plan to be successful. If you don't know how to create a marketing plan, just Google “marketing plan” or “marketing agency” – many agencies are hired to just create marketing plans.
Mistake #3: Preparing and then not taking action
Many business owners have a fear of failing. Actually, who doesn't have this fear? But instead of trying to prevent it, you need to follow your marketing plan (see Mistake #2) and forge ahead. It's hard at first, no one will tell you it's not, but you have to sell one product in order to sell a million. If you fail, evaluate what went wrong, try to fix it and try again. Repeat as needed!
Mistake #4: Constantly changing your marketing campaign
It happens a lot – the business owner and employees see their marketing materials every day and get tired of them. The same old poster printing images, the same old brochure copy…who wants to see that after six months of it being around? Your potential customers do, that's who.
Just because you've seen your logo a million times, doesn't mean everyone has. If your marketing campaign is working just fine, don't change it for the sake of change. A million people haven't seen your logo at all. Don't change your marketing campaign until it stops bringing in customers.
Mistake #5: Don't play monkey-see, monkey-do with your competitors
You should know what your competitors are doing, but you shouldn't copy it just because it works for them.
If a competitor is known as a “low price leader,” don't try to beat him out of that title – choose another like “high quality leader.” Find an important quality that your competitors aren't giving to your shared target.
