Is your marketing making you money, or making you crazy? "My business is failing, but I can't afford to market it because I don't have the money." The "I cannots" in marketing serve only to justify mistakes.

   Most marketing efforts fail NOT because of what we don't have, but because of what we do with the opportunities we DO have. Here's my annual review of the most common failed opportunities and marketing mistakes.

1. NOT HAVING A PLAN. The most common marketing mistake is not having a plan. A simple one- or two-page description of your customers and what you'll do to get them to buy from you is sufficient. If you don't have some idea of who buys from you and how you will reach them, then how can you know how to reach them? (See sidebar.)

2. NOT HAVING A BUDGET. No matter how large or small your marketing budget is, you MUST have one. One of the basic principles in marketing is that you have to spend some money (though not necessarily a lot of money) to get people to come into your business.

3. NOT UNDERSTANDING THE LIFETIME VALUE OF A CUSTOMER. Many business owners don't understand the lifetime value of a customer. If a customer spends $5,000 with you over a year, and stays with you for an average of 10 years, with half of every $5,000 spent being profit, that means that every customer has a potential lifetime value of $25,000! How much would it be worth to get that person through the door? At least 10 percent of their lifetime value, or $2,500? I'd think so.

4. NOT HAVING A DATABASE OF CUSTOMER NAMES. Get your names in a database so you can contact your customers regularly.

5. NOT HAVING A BACK END. If you don't have something you can offer after the sale, you are losing money? When are customers the happiest? Shortly after they buy something. You should go back to your customers within 15 to 20 days and make them another offer.

6. NOT TRACKING YOUR SALES. In order to have a low-cost, high-impact marketing strategy, you MUST track every sale. There are several things you must know about each transaction:

Where/how did your customer hear about you?

Who referred the customer?

How much money did the customer spend?

Be an aggressive tracker; it will save you literally thousands of wasted dollars.

7. FAILING TO UPSELL. You should try and upsell every customer at the checkout counter if you're a retail business, or try to add additional services or offer longer-term contracts for your services if you're a service provider. You can literally add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to your business each year by suggesting an additional product or service for your customers to buy.

8. FAILING TO ASK FOR REFERRALS. As simple as it may seem, this is one of the most overlooked, and hardest strategies for small-business owners to employ. It's amazing since this is one strategy that can almost guarantee your success. Ask everyone who buys your product or service if they would give you the name of a friend or family member who could also use our product or service.

9. FAILING TO GET LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION OR TESTIMONIALS. You or I don't want to be the first one to buy from someone. So why would your customer? Take the time to get testimonials, and use them in advertising and at the point of sale.

10. FAILING TO TAKE THE TIME TO STUDY MARKETING, and to take the time to study your own marketing. Learn all you can about marketing. There are many great books available on the subject. One of the best is Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, ,by Jay Conrad Levinson. Any books by Ries & Trout, Jay Abraham, or Jeff Slutsky are also worth reading.

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