As human beings, we tend to be too nearsighted - limiting our thinking to paradigms we find comfortable for ourselves. But when you’re trying to understand and fulfill the needs of your customers, it’s almost always necessary to become farsighted, stepping outside of those paradigms to view things from your customers’ perspectives. That’s especially true when considering new marketing approaches.

1. Not Listening to Customers Many businesses operate on “intuition” and don’t realize that their experience may not reflect the reality of their customer base. For example, a CEO may be told by his or her sales representatives that all is well with the customers, when in actuality, the customer experience is less than positive. Objective research is the cure; through it everyone will gain a realistic view of the situation.

2. Being Afraid to Spend Money in Order to Make Money Marketing innovation doesn’t come for free. In order to understand your customers and address their needs in a positive, creative and interesting way, you’ll have to invest significant resources. Of course, the return on your investment should be carefully measured, and, as in any wise business decision, it should be possible to see a profit from the experience down the line.

3. Garbling the Message
So often in the excitement to communicate with customers, firms try to cram all key messages into one message and one channel of communication. Careful thought is needed to come up with a single message and a single voice to communicate clearly.

4. Thinking for the Moment
In the midst of daily demands, it’s easy to get bogged down in the here and now. But strategic thinking isn’t only for generals. It’s necessary to think “strategically” in long-range terms in order to spend marketing dollars effectively. Marketing “tactics,” or practical action steps, will flow naturally from strategic thinking.

5. Trying to Do It All Yourself Delegation of responsibilities is one key to a successful marketing program. It’s important to put one individual in charge of each action step or “tactic” in your marketing plan. Individual responsibilities include adhering to that tactic’s budget and timeline.

6. Forgetting the Feedback Conducting a marketing program (or any communications program) without built-in evaluations is like walking in the dark. Regular feedback is an absolutely critical part of your marketing strategy so that if necessary, you can adjust your course of action as you go along. Remember, if you can’t measure it, it’s not worth doing.