What is the biggest marketing mistake any business can make? Not having a website? No. Not being involved in social media? Not even close. Not sponsoring the local soccer team, not updating your logo, not attending a trade show? No, no, no! So what is the marketing failure to beat all other fails? The answer is very simply this: Not interacting with your customers.

Right now many marketing departments are putting together marketing plans for next year. This typically involves some introspection: what worked in the past year and what did not? How much will it cost to try some new ideas? What should be updated and what will remain the same in your marketing efforts? These are all good questions that are tied to the budgeting process. However, what is missing from the discussion is the opinions of your customers. Too many times, marketing planning and budgeting takes place without any consideration of what your customers want from you. If you are in charge of your marketing plans, make sure you are gaining the perspective of the very people who you are asking to buy from you.

How do you get your customers to talk? You could have a formal sit down with them, like a focus group. You can also do a customer satisfaction survey. In both of these cases, you can control the questions and really focus on specifics. If you have the budget, I would encourage you to do this with an independent third party marketing research firm to get the most honest answers from your customers. However, getting customer feedback does not have to be that formal. If you have outside sales representatives who are regularly in front of your customers, they will have a good feel for what the customer is wanting from you. If you have customer appreciation events, such as golf outings or sports events where you entertain your clients, take the time to informally ask them what they want from you. Listen to what they say. Take this information and build it into your strategic marketing plans. There is nothing more effective in marketing than exceeding the expectations of your customers. However, that is impossible to do if you don’t have any clue where their expectations start and stop. Interaction with your customers is key to this process.

What if I want to try something new that the customer has yet to understand because they have not seen it yet? No one could conceive the scope of a Smart Phone that had all kinds of functionality until they hit the market. Then everyone wanted one. What if I have the idea that will revolutionize my customers’ world and create a great demand for my brand? That is a fair question. New products are launched all the time. Some make it and some don’t. What is the difference between those that are successful and those that are not? Typically it is based on customer opinion. Test your new ideas with a small group of customers (ie a test market). Most new consumer items go through some sort of test marketing before they are launched. Feedback from test markets help shape product development as the product is refined. But they also give direction to the marketing of the product. Going back to the Smart Phone for a minute; who would have guessed prior to the launch of the product that using it as a phone – not a camera, music player, a map navigator, a home security system, etc. – would be the last thing you would market about the device? Where do you think the idea to market a phone as a do-anything device came from? Test markets provide this kind of valuable feedback when you engage customers in the process.

You simply need to work the opinions of your customers into your marketing plans or you will fail. Without their input you are simply guessing at what will work. Marketing by trial and error is costly and doesn’t have a great success rate. Make sure you are not making the big marketing mistake. Ask your customers what they want from you and work it into your plans for the upcoming year.

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Statue of Cain, by Henri Vidal, 1896