Stuff happens… good and bad.
Everything from extended stays at the beach (good!) to an unexpected flu (not so good) can throw a monkey wrench into your marketing if you’re not there to oversee it.
But that doesn’t have to be the case. Here are some simple tips for dealing with “stuff” of the unexpected kind so that your marketing will keep humming along and your business will continue generating leads even if you’re temporarily out of commission.
Are you happy with your marketing?
Do you feel you are spending a fair amount in terms of both dollars and time?
Are you getting leads?
How you answer those questions will affect the decisions you make about your marketing. But before you make bad decisions based on the wrong things, read this. I share some reasons why your marketing may not be working and how to get results moving forward.
Marketing is hard. It requires a lot of planning. And some luck. You can execute the most thoughtful campaign and be left scratching your head when it fizzles. The opposite is also true. Sometimes, a campaign morphs into something new and takes on a life of its own becoming wildly more successful than expected.
Enter the ALS ice bucket challenge.
A few days ago, I was challenged by my friend Marisa Campasano. Read on to find out more about the challenge, to watch a video of me taking a bath in ice water and to learn a valuable lesson:
Somebody somewhere is going to hate your marketing campaign. Get used to it.
Do you listen to podcasts? If you run a small or medium sized business, you should. There are a ton of great podcasts about business management, entrepreneurship and marketing.
Just recently I was the guest host on the 60th episode of Mike Brooks’ Nuclear Chowder podcast.
This podcast is required listening – not just the 60th episode but all of them. Tune in for some great insights about SEO, social media, the pros and cons of a DIY approach and the truth about website traffic.
Fill in the blank:
Stop following and start…
Did you say “leading”?
Bzzt! Wrong answer.
Forget the clichés because today is the day you’re going to change your thinking. It’s the day you’re going to start talking about all those things that bug you about “business as usual” so that you can prove to your prospects and customers that you’re not here to simply feed them more of the usual garbage that they can get anywhere.
If you want to differentiate yourself then get on your soapbox. This is mine. And if you want to know how to really fill in that blank, read on.
You’ve heard it before: don’t cut your marketing even when budgets are tight.
But there is a practical reality to how much any business can spend.
Part of being a good marketing consultant is knowing when to advise clients to spend money and when to advise them to hold onto it. And while it’s never a good idea to cut marketing entirely, there are certainly more cost-effective ways you can do it.
Here are a couple of things you can cut and a few you shouldn’t if you want to get the most out of your marketing dollar.
It’s Word Carnival time, that once-a-month gathering of my colleagues and some pretty smart business folks when we all write on the same topic. This month’s topic is “selling based on VALUE and not based on PRICE”. But sometimes, dear customer, we have to sell on price.
So this post is for you – the person who may one day hire me or even hire a marketing company that isn’t me. It’s to help you think about your approach to budgeting, hiring, and ultimately working with someone. And it’s not about my value. It’s not even about my pricing. It’s about how those things work together – and sometimes don’t play nicely together – and what that means for your business.
My business depends on helping other businesses market themselves online. So I should be falling all over myself convincing people why internet marketing is the best thing since Oreos (which are way better than sliced bread, by the way). And yet that’s not what I’m about to say. What I’m about to say is: step away from the keyboard. Close Facebook. Get off Twitter. Stop working on your next marketing email. Ditch Skype. Put on some pants and go meet someone for breakfast right now. Here’s why you can make all the online connections you want, but if you want the relationships to matter, you need to take them into the real world.
Disruption. It’s one of my favorite marketing concepts. It involves initiating a disturbance in your market that draws attention to your products or services while pulling attention away from your competitors. This is the story of how a Saturday afternoon looking for a six pack of beer turned into a lesson in marketing that every business can learn from.
This is the story of a backpack. But it’s really about honest marketing. Come along and I’ll share it with you because then I won’t have to tell you how important it is to craft your marketing messages truthfully. You’ll see it for yourself.
The Marketing Game Changer Kit is a collection of 7 resources designed to help you get organized, save time and grow your business through meaningful marketing efforts.
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