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Bright Ideas # 81 - The Problem with Most Marketing Tactics

Just last Friday, I taught a workshop for our local WNET program (affiliated with Community Capital Development and the U.S. Small Business Administration) called “How to Choose the Best Marketing Tactics for Your Business”.

Although I did pass on my list of low-cost marketing tactics any business can use, I took it one big step further. I covered all the basics about how to choose your tactics based on: your target market, business goals, budgeting, USP, positioning, and more.

Why? Because there is a critical point that most entrepreneurs miss when they choose their marketing tactics or write their marketing plan.

You see, everyone wants to know which tactics are best. But there’s a fatal flaw with always thinking about your marketing in terms of tactics…

The best tactics in the world aren’t going to do diddley-squat to grow your business unless they are part of a bigger strategy. You really need every piece of marketing you do to work together to create what I call “critical marketing mass”.

This is the point where target prospects and customers see or hear your name and core message so often, your marketing takes on a life of its own. Soon half the people you meet have already heard of you. And those that hadn’t quickly understand who you are, what you do, and why you are better/different from the rest.

Unfortunately, most small business owners don’t even have a strategy—let alone a well-thought-out plan—for growing their business. They just keep trying different marketing and advertising tactics hoping something brings in customers.

It’s like stuffing quarters in a slot machine and pulling the handle over and over, hoping this time you’ll get some money out of it. Sadly, customers aren’t likely to come pouring out of the bottom of a one-shot tactic while bells ring and bright orange lights flash.

Besides, running a business is nothing like playing slots. Because you simply can’t afford to rely on luck of the draw.

You need to know exactly how you plan to take your business from where it is today, to where you want it to be tomorrow. And you need to be able to see whether or not you are getting results. That way you can change and improve your plan down the road.

Otherwise, at the very least, you end up doing twice as much work for half the reward.

At worst, your business limps along or grows too slowly for you to achieve your personal, financial and business goals (Remember those? You did have some when you started your business, right?).

Now, I know we are all led to believe you have to sacrifice both time and money to start a business. But at some point the days of self-sacrifice must end. Otherwise you are headed for burnout and a return to cubicle life.

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What you need is a plan for making your dream business happen
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Now, I know coming up with a plan sounds like a lot of work. And you’re probably thinking “When am I supposed to find time to do all this strategic planning?!?”

Perhaps you’re even thinking “Find the time…Heck, I wouldn’t even know where to start!”

Don’t worry. You don’t need to write a novel or dissertation. And you don’t have to be a marketing guru.

You just have to figure out where you are now and where you’re going. That way you can create a sensible plan for getting there.

Really it’s a lot like planning a vacation road trip…

You figure out where you are starting from, and where you want to go. Then you factor in goals, timeline and budget and pick a route. Finally, you create a to-do list, get everything ready, and hit the road.

Before you know it, if you follow your intended route, you’ll get where you want to go.

So I know it sounds crazy, but, if you can plan a road trip (and who hasn’t packed up the car and driven to grandma’s, moved across country, or gone crazy over spring break with a carload of friends??) you can write a simple yet powerful 2-page marketing plan that really works.

Once you get how this road trip concept works, you’ll be smacking yourself in the forehead and wondering why you didn’t write your plan out before.

It’s really that simple.

I’ve actually broken it all down in my e-workbook "Putting Your Business on the Road to Success: The savvy entrepreneur's down and dirty, step-by-step guide to creating a powerful, 2-page Marketing Success Action Plan for attracting customers and exploding your business".

Do you have a marketing, advertising or writing question you’d like to have answered? Email me and you might see the answer in a future edition of Bright Ideas.

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