As an extra bonus at the end of my new book, ‘Marketing Strategy’ by Jenna Tiffany, readers will learn about the most common pitfalls they might encounter, and how to avoid them.
“Jenna Tiffany adds to the body of knowledge on how to make an email marketing program more effective and more profitable! I especially liked her chapter on common pitfalls, as it addresses the most common issues with email marketing programs, head-on. If you’re looking to start or improve an email marketing program, this is a book that will help.”
That’s what Jeanne Jennings, CEO of Email Optimization Shop, General Manager at Only Influencers, and Programming Chair for Email Innovations Summit said when she read my new book, ‘Marketing Strategy’.
‘Marketing Strategy’ is the book I wish I’d had when I started out in marketing. It covers everything you need to know to take a strategy from the barest glimmering of an idea to a fully fledged campaign and beyond. It’s packed with case studies, frameworks, interviews with top marketers, and brand-new information that you can only find here.
What’s more, as a special bonus to all my lovely readers, I’ve added a section at the end on common marketing pitfalls, and how to avoid them. As you can see from the quote above, it’s been a popular chapter with readers so far!
This chapter takes what my experience tells me are the ten most common marketing pitfalls, explains how they happen, and gives readers the tools they need to both avoid and overcome them.
For a taster, here are the ten pitfalls. Of course, if you want to find out how to avoid and overcome them, you’ll have to buy the book!
- Lack of vision. Without a well-defined vision, your campaign will lack focus and direction.
- Overcomplicating things. It’s great to have a sophisticated idea. And it’s fantastic to have cutting edge tech to back that idea up. But be very careful of making your strategy too complicated. Simplicity is key to efficiency.
- A lack of structure. A good team structure is key for communication, focus, and morale. If people don’t know what they’re responsible for, who they’re reporting to, and so on, your strategy will quickly fall apart. The same goes for your strategic execution. You need structured processes in place to make everything run smoothly.
- Problems with decision making. Are your team leaders indecisive? Inconsistent? Wishy-washy? Then you’re going to have a problem.
- Bad communication. Our basic job as marketers is to communicate with customers. If we can’t even communicate well amongst ourselves, how do we expect to get our message across to an audience?
- Being closed-minded/short-sighted. Seeking short-term gains over longer term rewards is a persistent problem in marketing. In my experience, it’s always worth opening your eyes and your mind to the bigger picture.
- Ignoring your customer. The customer may not always be ‘right’ – but they are always, always worth listening to! Ignore them at your peril.
- Mistaking tactics for strategy (i.e. not having a plan). Tactics are an essential part of any strategy, but they are not the strategy itself. Firing off tactics without a clear plan will never bring you the results you need.
- You don’t know what you’re aiming for. Without clear goals, you won’t have milestones to mark your progress, or a roadmap to follow. You’ll be striking out in the dark when you could be following a clear strategic path.
- You’re not managing your team well. Maybe you’ve matched up responsibilities and people poorly. Maybe motivation is low. Whatever the reason, it’s vital that you keep your team motivated and working at their best. Your people are your most valuable resource – deploy them wisely!
To learn more about these pitfalls, and how you can avoid them, buy ‘Marketing Strategy: Overcome Common Pitfalls and Create Effective Marketing’ by Jenna Tiffany today.
About Jenna Tiffany
Jenna Tiffany, award-winning marketer, has been recognized as one of the top 50 marketers to follow in the world. She is the Founder and Strategy Director at marketing agency Let’sTalk Strategy, providing strategic consultancy services across the digital marketing mix. She is a Chartered Marketer and awarded Fellow of the Institute of Data & Marketing (IDM) with over ten years’ marketing experience, and has consulted on marketing strategy with brands such as Shell, Hilton and World Duty Free.
Jenna is a keynote speaker, having spoken at hundreds of marketing events worldwide and is an elected member of the prestigious DMA UK Email Marketing Council. Jenna is also a qualified teacher regularly teaching marketing at universities. She regularly gets interviewed for her thoughts on marketing strategy and the latest trends.