With apologies to my excellent English teachers over the years, the headline of this post illustrates why attention to detail is so important in marketing. All of us make mistakes, and I have made many. But keep in mind the old carpenter’s expression, “It is better to measure twice and cut once.” Likewise, it is always better to prevent mistakes in the first place, as opposed to correcting them after the fact. We practice this at Fusion Marketing Partners and I suggest that you do the same.
Here are some examples of details that can cause unpleasant problems:
- Misspellings and grammatical errors: In the era of texting, IM and Twitter, many of us have gotten sloppy when it comes to spelling correctly and the rules of grammar. But prospects do notice and more than an occasional error will cause them to doubt your professionalism.
- Incorrect contact details: This category includes web links, email addresses, and phone numbers. Nothing is more frustrating to a potential customer than to click on a link, send an email or call a phone number, and find either no one, or the wrong person/company at the other end. It will cost you
business. - Incorrect date or time: What if you held a webinar and nobody showed up? This or even worse, can happen if you get your date and/or time wrong.
- Missing critical information: Do you ever find yourself at a product website, decide you want to make a purchase, and then have trouble locating the
buying instructions? This is just one example of data that you must include to be successful. Here are a few more:
- What your company does
- Your primary benefits
- Your specific offer
- Tax and shipping details
- Return and privacy policies
In the mid 1980’s, when I was a young director of marketing at Group 1 Software, I made one of those mistakes that provided a lifelong lesson in paying attention to details. In those days, direct mail was the big producer in lead generation and mailers would buy multiple mailing lists and then eliminate the duplicates (also known as merge/purge) so that each person would receive only one mailer. Duplicates on multiple list mailings can run as high as 50 percent.
Now for the painful part of the story – I decided to do a very large mailing to businesses to generate leads for our merge/purge software program. The only problem was that I forgot to ask our IT manager to run the combined mailing list through our own software before we sent out the mailing. Some people were getting 3 or 4 of the same mailer telling them how we could eliminate their duplicates. I actually had calls from people insulting my intelligence. Needless to say, this did not make my “Best Moments in Marketing” highlight film.
Whether your purpose is to boost awareness, generate qualified leads or sell products, don’t forget to slow down, focus, and pay attention to details (e.g. measure twice). And when possible, have a second pair of eyes review what you do. The mistakes you prevent can help you avoid embarrassment and contribute to your bottom line.
