Are you being a marketing ostrich?

I work with many businesses who originally started off with a bit of a ‘fog’ around their marketing.

The main thing that they were doing was repeating what they knew had worked in the past. There are obviously pros and cons for this but we found that over a number of years there were a few major issues that meant that the business was being held back and that the customer was bored, which was slowing conversion and hindering the sale cycle.

It can feel great as a business owner to keep doing things with consistency, knowing that they once worked so that they must work again…RIGHT?

Sometimes this blissful ignorance can cost us money, time and energy unnecessarily.

So, you did a marketing campaign five years ago and it worked really well and didn’t cost you too much money. Or did it?

In your head and in your accounts, you see £3000 spent on the marketing campaign (for example) but in reality, that was a payment to an agency who promised you the earth and underdelivered on results. On top of that fee are often all the costs of losing customers through irrelevant and ill-timed marketing and those who dropped off your database, staffing costs to manage it, accountability checks and so on…

Marketing in business today should not be seen as one transaction i.e. I give you this and you get me that. It’s so much more than that so if you are looking for historical campaigns to work now to grow your business, it might not necessarily be the answer for stable growth longer term.

Fresh eyes are everything. Having a clear view with your marketing can reinvigorate your staff, awaken your customer, benefit your bottom line and ultimately grow your business with ease.

If you keep doing the same thing you’ve always done the customer becomes immune and your efforts are wasted (there’s the definition of stupidity in there somewhere). There is an element of brand recognition though through repetition and consistency and that has its place and yes, you do need to repeat your marketing to get it recognised but doing the same thing again and again and expecting the same outcome or sales uplift isn’t necessarily going to happen.

In marketing in general relevancy, timing and targeting are huge and should never be underestimated.

It may sound boring but planning is everything.

Having a 12 month plan can make sure that your year is broken down into quarters, months and weeks which provides reassurance for everyone involved. It also makes sure that you have fresh creative ideas throughout the year without having to think on your feet or feel like you need to react to a competitor activity because you haven’t done anything in your marketing for a while (I’ve seen money wasted on this LOADS over the years).

I’ve taken quite a few marketing ostriches and turned them into million pound heroes through planning, creative ideas, customer targeting and simple joining up of consistency, accountability and good communication.

If you are interested in getting your head out of the sand and making a difference in the next 12 months. I’m here.