Making Mistakes in Your Marketing? Good!
Just be sure you learn from them
By: Kelly Robbins
We all make mistakes, both in our business and our personal lives. In fact, we skiers in Colorado often ask each other how much we fell. Because "if you didn't fall you're not trying hard enough" when skiing.
I think the same holds true in marketing.
Take chances – it's ok to make a mistake. Oftentimes it's the best way to learn.
I recently read The Million Dollar Consultant by Alan Weiss. Here is what he has to say about learning from setbacks:
"You win some and you lose some. The best baseball hitters are successful about one-third of the time. The best golfers win perhaps one of every 15 tournaments they enter. Abraham Lincoln lost more elections than he won. The finest salespeople probably close about two sales of every 10 legitimate meetings."
I find it's easy to see the mistakes you make and dwell on them. I see some people kicking themselves or their employees and spending weeks worrying about the consequences. Dwelling on the "what if's".
Weiss tells us "the key, of course, is not to make the same mistake twice. Whether you swing at a wild pitch, hit the tee shot into the water, lose the election through poor debating, or lose the sale through lack of preparation about the competition, the idea is to lessen the chances that the same cause will produce the same result the next time."
Finally Weiss states, "Don't shun setbacks. Learn from them. They are an intrinsic part of the work, so we might as well become proficient at dealing with them and capitalizing on lessons learned."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Especially in marketing, it's important to try new things and pursue new ventures. If it doesn't work – stop doing it and try something else. If something is working – tweak it and see if you can get it to work better!
If you don't try, you fail no matter what. Especially when it comes to marketing your business.
About the author
Kelly Robbins, founder of The Copywriting Institute, is the author of Powerful Interviewing Techniques for Healthcare Marketers and The Healthcare Copywriters Toolkit. Kelly Robbins is an award winning healthcare copywriter and marketing coach/consultant. Publisher of "The Copywriting Connection", Kelly helps writers and marketers learn to write phenomenal copy. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, "Six things every copywriter MUST know to make high profits in copywriting fast!" at www.TheCopywritingInstitute.com or 303-460-0285.
© 2008, The Copywriting Institute
« Back to Archives List