You leave a workshop or a three-day conference of business owners sharing success stories on how they’ve doubled, tripled, quadrupled business in a matter of a few year or months. You sitting back saying “Wow if he/she can do it. So can I!” You’ve taken copious amounts of notes and they’re all full of marketing tactics that this company has done to be successful. Things like social media, content marketing, or email and you go into your office on Monday and you hold a company meeting with your heads of marketing and sales you say “This is what we’re going to do (insert tactic)!” and your people are just as fired up as you are but what happen 11 times out of 10? It doesn’t work. Why?
Well, it’s because most business owners find themselves fired up after hearing these success stories and try to make them work in their business overnight but the problem is that when they deploy these new tactics they’re winging it. Then three, six, nine, or twelve months later they find themselves broke and with no results. Here are three ways to not wing your marketing:
Prove the Model
You need to prove your sales model before you invest in marketing. Proving the model isn’t just getting early adopters it’s having repeated success selling your product or service to random strangers that have never heard of you before. This does a few things it gives you a better understanding of the market, who’s buying you?, why are they buying you?, and most importantly what’s effective when trying to create opportunities.
Build a Strategy
A strategy is different from a business plan. A strategy is how are you going to go to market and how do you want your business to be perceived.
Stick to a Strategy
“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Is a famous legal quote from the OJ Simpson trial but it is valid in the business world. If you find yourself fired up and excited about a new market trend if it doesn’t fit into your marketing and sales strategy then you should deploy it. I know this is easier said than done. I know that FOMO (fear of missing out) is a real thing and you’re always going to stress over could this be the next million dollar revenue generator but if it derails your strategy then it might cost you multi-millions.
These are just a few things that you can do to slow down and make the right decision when it comes to investing into marketing that works but I can’t stress enough that it’s easier to master something than it is to be a wing it all-star .