5 Mistakes Marketers Make
You're making mistakes in your marketing and don't even know it. BTW, I make mistakes too. Here are a few of them that are killing you.
I've written more than 100,000 ads over 40+ years, and I still catch myself making these five mistakes. If I can screw them up after nine Super Bowl spots, so can you. Here's where marketers quietly bleed money without ever noticing the wound.
The 5 Mistakes That Are Killing You
1. Missing A Pixel
A pixel is a tool you can't ignore. If you aren't tracking behavior with the depth of pixel data, you're leaving money on the table -- not hypothetically, literally. Every retargeting campaign I've run that outperformed cold traffic did it because we knew exactly who bounced, who scrolled, who almost bought. I don't care what platform you're on, everyone has a pixel: Facebook, Google (the O.G.), Pinterest, TikTok. Skip it and you're advertising blind.
2. Selling A Product Instead Of Building A Brand
The best way to build healthy, sustainable, memorable client relationships is to build your brand. Think about the product you buy that you never see a sale ad for. Nike, Kleenex, Band-Aid... if you had hemorrhoids what would you reach for? YES! Preparation-H for the win. That's not an accident -- that's decades of brand-first copy, not discount-first copy. A headline can get someone to click, but only a brand gets someone to come back without being chased.
3. Ignoring Your Email List
I know you THINK emails are dead and no one reads them. That's B.S. People don't read crappy ones. Grab their attention, bring value, and your emails will grow your business. I've had clients treat email like an afterthought and watch a $40k list sit dormant while they burned budget chasing new cold traffic on ad platforms. Work and build that list on autopilot 24x7x365 -- it's the one channel you actually own.
4. Focusing on One Platform
How many businesses rely on a single platform to fuel their livelihood? Too many! We did, early on, and it nearly cost us the agency when an algorithm shift wiped out reach overnight. Here's an industry buzzword you need to know, no, own: OMNI-CHANNEL MARKETING (that means everywhere). If a platform goes belly up or blocks you, is your business dead? It's the "don't put all your eggs into one basket" approach to long-term health.
5. Creating Instead of Documenting
Remember yesterday? No, really! I did this video yesterday with a client. I didn't script it, didn't overthink it, I just did it... and recorded it. That's all there is to documenting. After the fact you push it to all your social channels and move on to your next thing. It's faster, it's more honest, and it converts better than most of the over-produced content people spend a week 'creating.'
Turn One Piece Into Two (In 5 Minutes)
EXTRA VALUE SUPER BONUS THINGY
We took this content and stripped the audio. In 5 minutes (give or take a minute for a call from my youngest son) we also made this a podcast episode to share with our listeners.
See, I told you it was an EXTRA VALUE SUPER BONUS THINGY! Podcast below or subscribe on iTunes.
About The Host: Ken 'Spanky' Moskowitz is the founder and CEO of Ad Zombies, the go-to copywriters for businesses worldwide, with 9 Super Bowl ads and $300B+ in client revenue generated along the way. He's made every mistake on this list at least once -- that's how he knows they're worth fixing before you make them too.
I hope these 5 tips help point you in the right direction. If you're still writing headlines and emails that don't earn a second look, start there -- fix the headline first, then come back and clean up the rest. Hit me up if you need more clarity.
Frequently Asked Questions
A pixel is a tracking tool that monitors user behavior and data on your marketing platforms. Ken says if you're not using pixel tracking, you're leaving money on the table, and every major platform has one—Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and TikTok all offer pixels you should be using.
Ken argues that brand-building creates healthy, sustainable, memorable client relationships. He points to brands like Nike, Kleenex, Band-Aid, and Preparation-H as examples of products people buy without ever seeing sale ads—that's the power of strong branding over constant product pushing.
Ken means you should just record what you're already doing rather than scripting and overthinking content. He describes doing an unscripted video with a client, recording it in the moment, then pushing it to all social channels—simple documentation of real work instead of manufactured content creation.
Omni-channel marketing means being present everywhere, not just on one platform. Ken warns that too many businesses (including his own, previously) rely on a single platform, which puts you at risk if that platform goes down or blocks you—it's the 'don't put all your eggs in one basket' approach.
Yes, according to Ken—he calls the idea that emails are dead 'B.S.' The real issue is that people don't read crappy emails. If you grab attention and bring value, your emails will grow your business, and your list works on autopilot 24/7/365.
