Welcome back! If you’re joining us from last time, you’ll remember that we talked about the “Biggest Mistake Most People Make in Their Lead Gen Marketing”. Whether you’ve read it or not, I’ll just re-cover it here, so that we’re all on the same page.

The biggest mistake is that most people try to SELL something too early in the process, rather than just get the prospect (reader) curious enough to take action and request more information.

Most of the time, we want them to either call us or fill out a form on our website.

By simply getting them to take that ONE, easy action – The First Step, you give your sales process the chance it needs to succeed. Of course, after the first step has been taken, the second and third steps are next. These steps should be a natural progression down a “slippery slope” that eventually leads to you closing the sale/deal.

For example, after you get your prospect to call you, you would have someone answer the phone, and pleasantly ask a few questions to get the appropriate information from your prospect in order to see if you can help them. If they fill out a form (name & email) on your website, your next step might be to take them to the next page, where you deliver your Special Report/Video, then offer them more information in exchange for getting the rest of the information you need, such as phone number, location of their property, ARV, Repairs, etc., so that you can follow up with them later.

Make sense? Great! So, with that out of the way, let’s now take a closer look at some other marketing boo-boos & blunders that most marketers make, shall we?

Here’s 5 More Common Marketing Mistakes Most People Make:

1. Not Getting Your Marketing Message Out Where Your Prospects Can See It.

Once you’ve written at least a halfway-decent marketing piece (using the advice from above), you then need to get that message OUT and in front of the eyes that will benefit from what you’re offering. It won’t do anyone any good if you can’t get the word out about what you do.

Even a crappy out blasted out all over the place will make more money than a brilliant ad only seen by a few people (in most cases).

“He Who Has a Thing To Sell, and Goes and Whispers in a Well, Will Never Make As Many Dollars As He Who Climbs a Tree and Hollers!”

Remember that.

2. Not Getting Your Marketing Message Out To Enough Places.

These days, your prospects are everywhere. Online and offline. Me personally, I’m a very technologically-oriented kinda guy. I do most everything online. When I need something, I go clickety-clack on my keyboard to find what I’m looking for.

More and more people are doing the same. So you should be able to be found online – in as many places as possible! Do some research to find what your potential prospects are doing to find people like you online. And build several pieces of virtual real estate to have them find you.

For example, put up an optimized website (or 2 or 3). Build a FACEBOOK Fan Page or 2.
Get yourself listed in a few online business directories. That’s huge. Put up some ads on Craigslist. Take out some online Classified Ads. You get the idea.

3. Only Paying Attention to Either OFFLINE Or ONLINE.

Just as it’s important to serve the ever-growing ONLINE community, you’d be shooting yourself in the foot if you forgot about all the people who are OFFLINE! I know it’s hard to believe, but there’s still a TON of people who don’t use a computer. There’s even more people who don’t know how to use it the right way! Even if some of your prospects have a computer, they may not know HOW to FIND YOU! Right?

So get your marketing message out to them, too. The last I heard, Bandit Signs and Direct Mail still work very, very well. Target your market & get your signs up and your letters out.

4. Forgetting What I Just Taught You.

In the opening paragraphs, as well as the last article in this column, I told you that the biggest mistake most people make is to try and SELL the prospect right away. Please remember that that ain’t gonna happen 99 times out of 100.

Your first ad should simply arouse enough curiosity and give them a strong enough benefit (reason WHY) they should take that first action and request more information from you… by calling or filling out the form, etc.

5. Not Doing Anything.

I saved the best for last. Listen, the easiest thing for anyone to do is nothing. Just curl up in a ball and blame the world for all your troubles. A lot of us have been there – especially over the past few years, when real estate and the economy in general were both crumbling like a cookie.

But doing nothing won’t solve your money issues. It won’t make things better. And most of all, if you do nothing, you’ll be missing out on all the FUN you could be having by working and helping people who truly need your unique skills and talents… and the services you can provide them.

So write your ad. Get it out there. Get on the phone and talk to people. Make some offers.

Even though my last 2 articles talked about NOT making mistakes, perhaps the REAL Biggest Mistake is to Not Do Anything. Don’t be afraid to fail!

As a smart guy once said, “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going!”

I remember a few years ago, when I first started experiencing success in real estate investing. I was young, hungry, and knew just enough to be dangerous. But I took massive ACTION by putting up ads everywhere I might be able to get a deal. I talked to banks & actually got them to believe me! I made offers on houses I had no idea what to do with. Some deals worked out and some didn’t. But I kicked up a big cloud of smoke and improvised along the way. And when the dust settled & the smoke cleared, I’d closed a bunch of deals… and was a millionaire!

It was the most terrifying, exciting, and fun time in my business career. I made friends, rubbed elbows, and earned the respect of people who were WAY above me. Why? Because I took action.

In closing, I’d like to remind you that there are a few great tips in this article about how you can avoid some commonly-made marketing mistakes. But again, the real “Biggest Mistake” would be to not do anything. Hey, mistakes are going to happen. You can’t avoid them, no matter how hard you try or how many of my great articles you read. But just do the best you can to avoid writing big checks, making promises you can’t keep, or personally guaranteeing debt, and you should be just fine!

Until Next Time, I’m…

Wishing You Success,

Tony Pearl