My Biggest Advertising Mistake (and What I Learned)

My biggest advertising mistake and what I learned. Many people assume I've always been at the level I'm at now, and the level I'm at now isn't the best. I can still get better and improve. But I'm a New York Times bestselling author. I'm a sought-after entrepreneur and marketer. I'm a thought leader in the digital marketing space. And that's not to brag. Behind every success story are thousands of failures, and my biggest failure was one for the books. In fact, it ended up costing me over a million dollars. $1,250,391, to be exact. That's a lot of money, and it was a mistake I'm still learning from all the time. Can you guess what it was? Do you think it was a social media misstep or betting big on an SEO strategy that didn't pan out? It wasn't either of those things.
RESOURCES & LINKS:
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SurveyMonkey: www.surveymonk...
Crazy Egg: www.crazyegg.com/
Hot Jar: www.hotjar.com/
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It was all about my website's messaging, and that mistake was so big that one of my best-ever business ideas almost collapsed entirely. Here's what happened.
I started a website called Kissmetrics in 2008, and it was an analytics business. It was an awesome website centered around helping users gain access to essential and actionable metrics surrounding user behavior. But the value prop was never clear. I spent years tinkering with that headline, but no success to show for it.
I started going shorter with my headlines, working harder to find a way to make my main value prop really stand out. I started using social proof and offering free trials to boost credibility. And guess what? I got almost an instantaneous 40% bump in conversions. And that means for three years I was losing out on 40% of my conversions.
What I learned, lesson number one, your value prop is everything. And if you're not sure on how to create amazing value prop, what I recommend that you do is survey our audience. Use tools like SurveyMonkey or Crazy Egg or Hot Jar to figure out what issues people have. Use a lot of those keywords within your messaging and give them a solution to their problem. Because if you're using the keywords that they're using you're much more likely to resonate with them and drive more conversions.
Lesson two, social proof is essential. If something has a thousand sales but only has two out of five stars are you going to buy it? Probably not. What you're looking for is those products that have a four, four and a half, if not a five star rating on average. Five is a little bit hard. And then you're looking at the reviews and see what people have to say that are both positive and negative to figure out if that purchase is right for you. So you really want to think about social proof and showing a lot of reviews out there.
Lesson three, offer free trials. Back in the day when I created a business, my first business, things were much more expensive to create versus now, right? With cloud computing and the way technology has shaped businesses, it's a lot more affordable to just give people your product or service and let 'em try out a little sample before they have to buy. It's a great way to build trust and boost conversions.
Lesson four, build trust with your audience. If someone doesn't trust your brand, why would they buy from you? You're more likely to purchase from a trustworthy brand because you know you're not going to get ripped off and you're going to get what you pay for. Remember, time is money. People don't like making mistakes 'cause that costs them time.
Lesson five, understand that attention spans are short. I wanted my audience to get to know how great Kissmetrics was, but I didn't understand that 80% of readers will never make it past the headline. Make your point and make it early. If you don't, you're going to end up losing a lot of people. And as I mentioned, your headline should solve people's problems. If they can't figure out what problem you're solving through your headline, you've lost 'em. Even if they read further, chances are they're not going to convert.
Now, if you need help with your marketing, check out my ad agency NP Digital where we help companies of all sizes grow.
► If you need help growing your business check out my ad agency Neil Patel Digital npdigital.com/
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• My Biggest Advertising...
#seomistake #marketing2023 #seo

[@dr.denish..]

Thank you so much sir 💫

[@neilpatel]

No problem!

[@davidr4523]

So Neil's biggest marketing mistake was that he could have made a few hundred thousand a few years earlier? Really, that's the biggest mistake he can think of? This is similar to the interview question of what is your biggest weakness being answered by I try to be a perfectionist.

[@Telegraph-jason_pizzino]

Chat me up ☝️☝️

[@neilpatel]

To many new business a few years without that incoming revenue could be a deal breaker. I share these mistakes I made to help businesses avoid that. :)

[@shubhguptaoriginal]

2nd comment

[@neilpatel]

Nice :)

[@BuvanGuna]

Lesson five, hit home with me. I used to be detailed and expansive as I can be. My bosses wanted it to be concise. Over the years, tried to be succint and follow the K.I.S.S methodology. As you can see from this long assed comment, I'm only half successful. This will be my 2023 goal. Hope you had a great Christmas and wish you and your family all the very best in 2023, mate!

[@neilpatel]

Good stuff! Let's kill it in 2023!

[@zulkar2513]

Perfect 👍👍

[@neilpatel]

Glad you liked it

[@nandabk3562]

Good Information. How is Digital Marketing in India 2023.

[@neilpatel]

I'd have to do some research on that

[@andyandy5808]

Thank you

[@neilpatel]

You're welcome!

[@michaelgyan-rz9jq]

Blogging is good for Networking or Social Proof I just got some reviews earlier.

[@neilpatel]

That's great :) Keep it up!

[@lightninginternetmarketing]

Thanks a lot for another helpful and great content Neil

[@neilpatel]

My pleasure!

[@andyandy5808]

Thank yiu

[@neilpatel]

You're welcome!

[@robertschepers6752]

Dear mr, Patel I have a problem with my account for almost 6 months. 6 monthes troubleshooting with your team and still no solution. I still can not add more than one account. They gave me a temporary solution of creating a trial version. Now after one month you want to take money from my bank account, again…. That is not so nice. Hopefully you can give your team “a kick in the ass!” Maybe then there will be a solution. For now, I will keep posting this message until “your team” comes with a solution. With Best Regards, Robert

[@neilpatel]

I'll have to look into this one with my team! I appreciate you reaching out about this, Robert. Let's get this figured out for you :)

[@robertschepers6752]

@@neilpatel looking forward for it, again 2 days further…

[@robertschepers6752]

​@@neilpatel (Still no solution..... We are 10 days further) Dear mr, Patel I have a problem with my account for almost 6 months. 6 monthes troubleshooting with your team and still no solution. I still can not add more than one account. They gave me a temporary solution of creating a trial version. Now after one month you want to take money from my bank account, again…. That is not so nice. Hopefully you can give your team “a kick in the ass!” Maybe then there will be a solution. For now, I will keep posting this message until “your team” comes with a solution. With Best Regards, Robert

[@TheDman81]

Thank you Neil! Always delivering golden nuggets!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

[@neilpatel]

Same to you!

[@ManojAgadi]

Super Information About Your Mistakes Made in your Life and how to overcome from those mistakes. Wonderful Insights Sir.

[@neilpatel]

Glad you liked it

[@graisammaantony7762]

Can you explain about sitemaps

[@Telegraph-jason_pizzino]

Chat me up ☝️☝️

[@neilpatel]

Here :) neilpatel.com/blog/build-a-sitemap/

[@valuableknowledge123]

Valuable knowledge

[@neilpatel]

Thank you!

[@mitchellbobby3999]

Still don't understand the value prop thingy Neil.

[@neilpatel]

Value proposition. It's what you can provide to your target audience of in terms of value to their lives.

[@mayurpreneur1772]

Please sir make a videos in elaborate form ,I don't understand in five minutes.

[@neilpatel]

Duly noted :)