The document discusses how businesses often miss marketing opportunities that could bring in more customers and revenue. It provides examples of common missed opportunities, such as not following up on leads multiple times, failing to upsell customers, and not providing enough compelling content to convince buyers. The document encourages businesses to identify the specific marketing opportunity types relevant to their business and when each might arise. It also stresses that the ability to recognize opportunities is a learnable skill and provides tips on creating action plans to capitalize on identified opportunities in order to plug leaks that are draining money.

1. stuartjdavidson.com http://stuartjdavidson.com/marketing-opportunities-business-money/
Marketing Opportunities: Missing Them Is Costing Your
Business
Knowing how to identify potential marketing opportunities can be the difference between loyal long-term
customers and more underwhelmed members of the general public.
This might sound very generalised, but it is happening right now. In your business.
And it’s costing you.
Money is being left on the table, repeat custom is being missed, increased scope is being overlooked and
customer perception is being restricted.
Marketing opportunities happen all the time. There might be occasions when you realise afterwards that you
missed the boat on something that had potential. Most of the time though, it simply passes you by and you’re none
the wiser.
Think about it like this. You’re studying a piece of art or a photograph for a few minutes, taking in all its beauty and
creativity.

2. Then, a friend or colleague walks over and points out something that you’ve completely missed. And as soon as
you see it, you cannot stop seeing it.
Spotting and effectively leveraging marketing opportunities is a little like this. As soon as you know what you’re
looking for, you will always look for it.
And when it’s something that can dramatically increase your chances of success, or your entire livelihood for that
matter, then it’s something to take very seriously indeed.
Missed Marketing Opportunities – Examples
Here are some examples of marketing opportunities you might be missing:
Not following up on leads – it typically takes 3-4+ interactions to convert a lead into a paying customer. If
you give up after the first two points of contact, then you’re missing out on a huge chunk of your conversion
potential.
Not upselling – going for that magic sale without having a clear upselling or cross-promotional strategy
means you are limiting your revenue potential.
Taking a “maybe” answer as a final no – having a mindset of “if they do’t see the value quickly then I
wont bother chasing them” is detrimental to business scale. People that fall into the consideration stage of
your marketing funnel are the perfect candidates to leverage content marketing for persuasion.
Not providing enough compelling content to push the perceived value mark past the buyer concern
mark. It sounds obvious but you have to tell people what actions you want them to take, after giving them
attractive reasons to take those actions. Value has to be realised throughout the buying process in order to
maximise each unique sale.
These are but a few of the most common marketing opportunities costing businesses. If you believe in the theory
that that every single point of contact with someone is a potential marketing opportunity, then I’m sure you will start
to see numerous areas where value can be added to your marketing practices.
The importance of identifying marketing opportunities is very real and I’m sure there are some big holes to plug in

3. your marketing efforts. When it affects the bottom line of your business, you will experience the reality of it and the
dramatic impact it can have!
Now that you are aware of a few common marketing opportunities you might be missing, it’s important to realise
when they might present themselves.
How To Realise Marketing Opportunities
Begin by listing out all the marketing opportunity types that you can think of that relate to your business.
Now think about how each opportunity typically presents itself. And all the triggers and actions that go along with
it. Write these down beside each opportunity.
Don’t worry if you get sudden writers block or your list is relatively small to begin with – this is something you can
keep on a white board or keep notes on and come back to in the future to build on.
By matching triggers to opportunities, you will already be heightening your awareness that an opportunity exists
and when to look for it.
It’s time to get strategic and bring your concept and learning to life. Create a typical action plan that works in
converting people from marketing opportunities to buyers.
It might be a go-to response or conversation pattern, a call-to-action to a conversion resource like a sales
brochure, a special offer for people on the edge of purchase, or a number of other actions that can fulfil the
opportunity identified.
Don’t Worry If You Suddenly Realise You Have Many Gaps To Plug…
The more ‘leaking pipes’ you can find that are draining money from your business, the more you can fix.
Fortunately, the ability to recognise marketing opportunities is a skill that can be largely taught and developed. It’s
not wholly a born-with mannerism or trait.
Sure, some people will have more tuned in natural characteristics to recognise marketing opportunities – you will
have probably heard of these people being referred to as born entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are exceptional at
spotting opportunities and creating actions to fulfil them.
The important thing to take away and implement is that realising what the marketing opportunities are beforehand
means you will understand how to create actions that leverage their potential.
Start Thinking.

4. This is by no means an inclusive article. Hopefully, it would have spurred your thought processes into thinking
about how you can start to identify marketing opportunities that you are currently missing out on and spot new
opportunities that you weren’t previously aware of.
If you have gone a step further and started to think about how to create actions to fulfil these opportunities, then
you are already on the path to reducing leaks in your business. And regularly missing real marketing opportunities
is definitely a business leak.
Have you already identified one major opportunity that regularly passes you by? It would be good to hear your
story in the comments below.
Photo credits: xerxesart.com, a1propertydamage and Art Wolfe/Caters.
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