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Here’s a gem of marketing you’ll want to bookmark and print out and burn into your marketing mind.

It’s lifted from part of a Q&A with Drayton Bird at Clayton Makepeace’s The Total Package…

(if you don’t know who Drayton Bird and Clayton Makepeace are… punch those names in Google)

What are the most common mistakes made by marketers?

• Too many amateurs in a business that calls for professionalism.

• They fail to study the past – or read.

• They “seek applause instead of sales” – Claude Hopkins said that over 80 years ago.

• They forget it’s just salesmanship and imagine it’s a branch of the entertainment business. Entertain, by all means, but make sure it’s relevant.

• They invest before testing – why guess when you can know?

• They don’t measure. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. What sane person invests in anything without measuring return on investment? Marketers do every day. Why? Because firms see it as an expense, not an investment. That’s why they cut marketing expenditure in recessions.

• They believe research will supply the answer – when it is only indicative.

• They don’t study business as a whole - all they think about is marketing.

• They fail to explain clearly to their colleagues what they are doing – maybe because many don’t really know.

• Over-optimism and a naive belief that marketing, especially advertising will solve business problems.

• Hiring marketing directors and senior agency people without checking their credentials. There is too little due diligence in our industry.

• Uncritical acceptance of “gurus” who are often just recycling old truths. Me, for instance.

So, what do YOU think?

Are you guilty of any of these common marketing mistakes?

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