5 Marketing Sins You Cannot Afford to Make

If you’re promoting and selling your products or services, it follows that you need to do that in the best possible light.

Yet people don’t.

They throw up half-assed images, product descriptions, and websites that drive yawns instead of clicks, and then expect people to buy.

Romance in Marketing

People need to be enticed, encouraged, and romanced to dig into your goods. They need to fall in love with what you do. And you can’t always get them there on the first date. It takes finesse, charm and charisma.

You convey all of that in your site, images and words used to expose people to your products.

And if you’re committing the following 5 marketing sins, you’re not cultivating any love for your work. S0 let’s dance, shall we?

Marketing Sins 101

1. Bad images

Let’s talk about photography. Now, you have a a product you want to display on, let’s say, Cycletrader.com. You snap a pic with your smartphone. It’s all good, right? In many cases that’s enough. You don’t need to buy fancy equipment if you don’t sell lots of products. But, if you’re going to use that smartphone, be smart about it. Geez. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT upload a blurry, out of focus shot I can’t see clearly. Because if I can’t see it well, I’m certainly not going to waste my time inquiring about it.

2. Ill-written copy

Words which are not targeted for your readers, not well-crafted for selling your products are not going to do that. Words that are just thrown on to the page without thought of how they’ll appeal to the reader are just words. Just writing. And they don’t usually move your goods well. Take a look:

Were you inspired? Nah. Methinks not. Now. Try this:

Even if you’re not a rider, this might spark some curious in you about experiencing the thunder that is Harley. There was an even more amazing bike description that I shared on Facebook last week, but that listing has since disappeared. So here’s my post:

If there’s one thing I can say, since I started shopping for my own Harley, most of these true connoisseurs know how to turn a rider on. They know what makes riding a Harley special and they show it off, make you drool.

When you write about your products are you showing them off? Are you using the words your customers use? Are you making them feel emotions of hope, desire, happiness, fear, sadness, etc? Are you making your goods irresistible to the people who want products like yours? If not, you’re committing Marketing Sin #2. Remedy that right now.

3. Aged Design

If you ever wanted to turn a reader off, then you should make sure you’re committing Marketing Sin #3 - an aged site design. Nothing screams “loser” like a design from 2000 (or before!). And with that word comes the connotation of being cheap and untrustworthy. Those two qualities are high sellers in the online world. Not!

Don’t commit this sin:

That’s the home page! Yep. Sorry, dude. That isn’t the way to market your biz. You have to woo your visitors visually, wow them, make them fall in love with you before you try to sell them.

Here’s a winner:

“Take the ride of a lifetime to the party of a lifetime.” Damn. Did you feel that? They struck an emotion. Ride, freedom. Party, good time. Who wouldn’t want to? Even if you’re not a rider, you can relate to the excitement of letting go and getting out from under responsibility for a while, yes? That’s the ticket. And all that emotion packed into a modern full-width layout slider that reeks of edgy and catches your eye. Not that old-fashion design that has everything in its own slot on the page with boxes and lines everywhere.

Peeling back emotion coupled with modern visuals is what makes you want to nose around the site a bit and check things out. Not just: “Here! This is what I want to sell you!”

Get me?

Get your design up to date and put your best face forward. Literally. After all, that’s what people judge you on. Your face. Put up a killer design and stick your mug right in the middle of it because if they can see your eyes, they’ll be more apt to trust you, assuming you don’t remind them of Leisure Suit Larry. ;)

With the amazing themes out there, you can pull off an ace site without having to buy custom design (you can invest in that later ;) ). Are we good on this whole Marketing Sin #3? Good. Let’s move on. :D

4. Lack of exposure

Dude, did you go through all that trouble to build your products, but then drop the ball on telling people about it? Marketing Sin #4: Keeping your own work a secret.

When I say promotion, I don’t mean tasteless self-promotion running through your streams of social media. There are sooo many ways to promote your work without being sleazy.

• Blog about it - indirectly
• Share it in social media (tastefully)
• Run promotional contests - think outside the box
• Email marketing - again, indirectly & tastefully

5. Lack of self-confidence

If you have little confidence in rocking your clients'/customers' worlds, they have no reason to think you will. You have to be proud of your skills and know you’re the right dude/dudette for the job or that your products are as killer as you are. And you might very well be proud of the work  you know how to do, but do the words on your site convey that? If no, you’re the only one who knows your capabilities. Committing this sin of being weak and wishy washy in your copy and shares,  loses sales. People need to read your confidence on your site so you lay to rest any question about whether or not you are an authority in your industry. Get me?

Do NOT commit this sin if you want to ramp up your sales.

Those are your 5 marketing sins. How many are you guilty of? Don’t be shy. I’m here to help - so if you have questions...you know what to do :) Drop them in the comments. Oh, and I’d be forever grateful if you’d share this little bit of info with your social circles. :) Much obliged. Congrats!! You made it to the end :) For that, I am beholden!

Have an amazing week...now go forth and kick ass!

<3 T