Is your business idea built on market research or a hunch?

Entrepreneurs often fall in love with their products or services before they determine if there's a real market, and they throw fistfuls of money into venture. If you, your spouse, your uncle, and your neighbor think you've got a winning idea, that's simply not enough qualified input to run to bank and drain your savings account!

Avoid this mistake by:

• Conducting your detective work (research).

• Testing your business idea with real marketplace.

MONSTROUS Marketing Mistake Number 2: Believing That "If You Build It, They Will Come"

Do you think you have a product or service that will practically sell itself?

Trust me — you don't.

There is a misconception among small business owners that, with right product or service, your customers will simply "find" you when you open your doors for business. Whether you have a physical storefront on a corner lot in busiest part of downtown, or a graphically pleasing online storefront offering easy access to your hot products and services, your customers will not find you if you do not market to them.

The day you open for business is day you put on your "marketer's hat" and never take it off. You must consistently move product, or schedule service time.

To stay in business you must profit.

To profit you must sell.

To sell you must market.

The good news is that, with a marketing strategy, you take control out of your potential customers' hands and put it into your own. If you have a product that will "practically sell itself," then your marketing job will be easy. Just remember that job must still be done.

Avoid this mistake by:

• Defining your niche market and USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that differentiates you from your competition.

• Developing a marketing action plan and strategy to reach your niche market with your USP message.

MONSTROUS Marketing Mistake Number 3: Trying to Reinvent Wheel

Marketing is an age-old practice with some very basic principles. Yet, I'm sure you've read many marketing information products that stress importance of being innovative and creative with your marketing efforts. It's easy to get caught up in innovation process and forget that REAL focus should be on results.

Avoid this mistake by:

• Emulating success instead of trying to create something completely new. Please note that I am not saying, "copy" what others are doing. Look at basic structure of a tactic, campaign, advertisement, or event and use same formula as a basis for developing your own tactics.

• Realizing great marketing ideas are used over and over again with just right twist to make them fit a specific business. Focus on results, and choose imitation over innovation to create your own twist on a proven, winning technique.

MONSTROUS Marketing Mistake Number 4: Over-Preparing and Doing Nothing

The fear of failure can be powerful. So powerful that we do everything we can think of to prevent it. Yet, there is a point at which we are so busy preparing, organizing, and researching to prevent failure that we never get around to actual marketing of business. Here are two things to remember:

1. Activity is not productivity. 2. In order to sell a million of something, you have to sell first ONE.

Avoid this mistake by:

• Doing something! If you believe in your business and have done your detective work, it's time to dive into marketing pool. Start small, track results and build from there.

• Not being afraid to make a mistake. Mistakes are entry to success. At very least, a failed promotion means you have SUCCESSFULLY determined what promotion does not work. And, to learn what does NOT work is a valuable tool in getting you closer to discovering what WILL work.

So, go ahead. Fail a little. It will make your eventual successes even sweeter.

MONSTROUS Marketing Mistake Number 5: Boredom

When I was working for an ad agency many years ago, I had one client that was running an extremely successful ad campaign. After about six months, I received a phone call from client. He wanted to develop an entirely new campaign. When I asked, "why?" he simply said, "I'm bored with one we have."

What?

That client may have had money to spend on a new campaign due to "boredom" but you and I usually don't. Yet, I've often seen my small business clients switch promotions for same reason. This is detrimental to your business!

"Losing money" is a reason. "Boredom" is not.

Avoid this mistake by:

• Remembering that, what is old to you, is new to an untapped target market. If you have a promotion that is consistently getting you results, stick with it until results show you its time for change.

• Testing new promotions without abandoning current one. Then track results. Never swap a current promotion with a new one that hasn't been tested.

MONSTROUS Marketing Mistake Number 6: Relying on Networking to Generate Sales Leads

An “op-ed” gets its name from fact that it usually appears on page opposite from publication’s editorial page. Quite simply, an op-ed is a highly focused opinion piece that aims to stir reader’s emotions while presenting facts that support author’s point of view.

Be forewarned: Op-eds are not for timid. To write an effective op-ed, you must be willing to seize an issue and to take a strong stand. This is what separates experts from generalists.

If you are unwilling to give a strong opinion, and thus risk creating opponents to your ideas, then op-ed is not for you.

Keep this in mind: All great experts have opponents. It is by waging war on battlefield of ideas that experts become well known and, in some cases, revered.

With all that said, here’s PR Rainmaker’s five-step process for producing an attention-grabbing op-ed.

Step 1: Seize an issue.

Look for an issue that straddles line between public good and your self-interest. You must either be or become an expert on this issue. Don’t try to fake it. You’ll get caught and lose credibility with media and public.

Check and double-check your facts. Make certain you have knowledge, background and supporting data to qualify as an expert on this issue.

Seek an issue with a long shelf life. There’s little point to become a well-known expert on a problem that will be solved next year.

Step 2: Identify a significant problem.

Within context of your issue, search for a problem that clearly threatens general public or at least some large segment of that public.

Focus, focus, focus. Clearly identify problem, audience it affects and how you might go about solving it.

Step 3: Make a bold statement.