There are lots and lots of things that you CAN do to market your business.
But just because you CAN do something, doesn’t mean that you SHOULD do it.
Do what you do for the right reasons.
Be wary of investing in things because they are popular, or are ‘what everybody else does’.
You get this with online tools, where someone says “you just have to use this”. You get a sudden rush of excitement and want to try it out!
It’s called “shiny object syndrome” and you must avoid it like the plague.
The better approach is to ignore the noise and make your current tools work better.
The same could be said for your marketing.
Stop looking for that new silver marketing bullet.
Instead, make a better job of your existing marketing.
Be resistant to approaches from salespeople selling their particular media.
All marketing should be the result of a well thought through plan (the 3Ms) starting with your target Market, then your key Message and only then Media’.
You can’t get success if you start with media. Ever.
You have to start with the market (your audience) and work from there.
Sure, seek out the marketing opportunities if it makes sense for your target customer. But ignore the salespeople who ring you to say “we have some discounted advertising space in our magazine”.
You should be seeking opportunities as part of a strategy. It seldom works if the so-called opportunities find you.
Also, not everyone with opinions has qualified opinions – so be choosy who you listen to.
Discernment, remember!
Oh, and be wary of advice from employees, peers, friends and family. Not everybody has your best interests at heart. Even if they do, they’re often not right.
Be selective.
And finally, know for sure that most marketing fails or under-performs not because it wasn’t a good idea, but because of poor follow-through and poor follow-up.
This is a biggie.
I’ve had clients who told me about an exhibition they had done.
They spent £8000+ but they didn’t have any plan to follow the leads up effectively. I mean, not just to call them, but a proper follow-up strategy.
It’s the same for Facebook advertising.
One of my marketing coaching clients invested money to create Facebook leads, but didn’t do the hard work to follow-up effectively. All those leads sitting untapped.
Some business don’t even follow up the enquiries that come through their contact page. Crazy.
Fixing how you follow-through this week could be a really smart use of your time…
If you don’t put the right kind of hard work in now, you’ll miss out and it won’t surprise you if competitors take charge.
Over to you.
If you need help getting a consistent flow of higher paying customers, my marketing consultancy and coaching could be for you.
