Create a Marketing Strategy that Works for Your Business
According to C.J. Hayden, author of Get Clients Now, some reasons your business may not be growing like you want are: not knowing or deciding where to begin, being unsure of how to put all the pieces together, or simply not being able to stay motivated. She uses the term “analysis paralysis,” which I find is very common when speaking with small business owners and even when we start working on a plan. This can go hand-in-hand with her point on maintaining motivation because it’s natural to want to see quick results. When the results don’t come as quickly or as large at first as the value attached to dollars spent, it’s easy to get a little bummed. It’s all too easy to think it isn’t working, give up, or start a new plan entirely. However, all this does is prolong the results you want. As it is incredibly important to continually monitor marketing results, and the information should help you move forward, taking a brand new path each time the results don’t equal expectations just presses the reset button on your marketing efforts.
I get it. Money matters and shouldn’t just be tossed around and the ROI is the bottom line. No business owner wants to spend precious marketing dollars for it to not work. What should be kept in mind is, by changing things too quickly because of instant gratification, you actually end up spending more money over time and never fully receive gratifications in the results. Now, this isn’t to say that a few minor modifications shouldn’t be made if necessary, but starting a new path entirely will leave you feeling as if you wasted money on marketing efforts. Hayden provides an insert from John Jantsch, a fellow marketing coach. Jantsch sums it up saying small business owners “love a new-fangled way to make the phone ring. But they often think of a marketing promotion as a single event. It’s precisely this view of marketing that holds most small businesses back” (Hayden 9). John nails it on the head when he states that business owners often “fall prey to the ‘marketing idea of the week’ and never fully explore what it takes to create and build a completely functioning, consistently performing, marketing system” ( Hayden 9). I have aligned my marketing consulting business around the same exact principles. Having a documented marketing strategy with steps and goals is vital. The plan and the steps are based in marketing rules, not “throw against the wall and hope it sticks” principles. And, most importantly, there is constant monitoring, measuring, innovating, and refining the strategy (not to be confused with changing the strategy completely).
I have found that marketing dollars are all too often considered flexible and usually, marketing budgets are cut first. It’s important to invest in yourself in the right ways in order to grow. This is true in self-improvement and in business. It isn’t the ideal choice to choose Ramen Noodles as a budget cut when it comes to your health. You find smarter options for healthy food choices in order to promote your overall health. The same is true with marketing. You cannot receive healthy growth with a Ramen Noodle budget approach to growth. This is where having someone analyze your website, your presence, your message, and strategize options will help you in achieving your goals. Hayden uses a similar analogy with “designing and implementing a successful sales and marketing campaign,” saying, “it is a lot like cooking a nutritious meal. When you are cooking, you need to decide what’s on the menu, shop for ingredients, and make sure your food choices combine to make a healthful diet” (8-9). You choose the marketing ingredients that fit you best in order to achieve desired results and fit in your budget. Invest in your business to grow, but also don’t go bankrupt doing it.
Prioritize steps in your marketing plan and check them off one by one if you are finding yourself in a tighter budget situation. Don’t try to achieve everything at once with moderate budget. Create a plan and separate goals to reach by quarters. Sales goals are typically broken down into quarters, so base your marketing strategy around those same goals. Line up your marketing with your direct growth. Be careful to not solely rely on expectations. Rather, use your marketing goals as a guide. At second quarter, if you aren’t where you thought you would be, remind yourself it isn’t a make it or break it moment. Look at your approach and compare with results and then take the information to make modifications moving forward. Create mid-point checks within the quarters to ensure you are following the steps you set out to take. Don’t get overwhelmed easily. This is generally an area of your business that you want off your shoulders. Be active in strategy creation, stay in communication with your marketing talent, but don’t add this to long list of tasks you already have as a business owner.