Effective Marketing is Never The Result Of One Thing

Marketers love to brag about that ONE ad or tool that drove 2X, 5X or the famous 10X growth…

But more often than not, it’s the combination of 20-50 small things that drive results.

For example, along with that ONE ad or tool could be:

• having a director of first impressions answer the phone,
• creating a killer landing page,
• developing strategic phone scripts,
• dominating the 1st page of Google,
• investing in sales training,
• cleaning up a job site before you leave,
• showing up on time,
• speaking in plain language,
• accepting all forms of payment,
• making repairs quickly,
• giving personalized advice,
• etc.

Don’t obsess about finding the “one thing”

If you are looking for that magic pill or one hit “marketing wonder” that will fix your challenges… this just ruined your day.

There is no marketing trick or technique in existence that can have a long-term effect on your bottom line without being consistently maintained, updated, and refreshed. You may see temporary spikes in your revenue – but it WILL be short-lived and disappear.

There’s absolutely no way to create – and sustain – growth in your business if you don’t take a consistent and integrated process approach to your marketing.

Talk to customers

As much as I enjoy being called a “small business marketing expert” the truth is I don’t have the answers your business needs …. your customers do.

Get on the phone or video conference and spend a lot of time talking to your customers. Asking these 5 questions is a head start:

1. Why did you decide to hire us or buy from us initially? This question helps you focus in on your marketing. Are customers receptive to your online presence, advertising, promotional efforts, message and sales process? Discovering what is effective is the kind of insight that can pay huge dividends.
2. What’s the one thing we should never stop doing? Find out what your customers really value about you, your services/products and your company. This question lets you discover your true differentiator. Is it your friendly staff, the way they get results, your 24-hour responsiveness or the way you clean up after every job?
3. What’s one thing we could do to create a better experience for you? The real value in this question is in your customer identifying or describing something your company, service or product could do to provide added value or just do 10% better.
4. If you were to refer us what would you say? I believe instead of just asking your customers would they refer you, get some insight into the words, phrases, and examples they would use when referring your business. This can help you further differentiate away from competitors and open up opportunities for educating your strategic partners.
5. What would you Google to find a service/product like ours? If you want your business to be easily found online by future customers, you need to know everything you can about the keywords and phrases they use when looking for services and products like yours. This is one of the most important aspects of your lead generation efforts.

As they speak listen and search for the problem you really solve for them (or what they value) because it’s probably not your services, it’s the thing your services do for them.

I can't stress this enough: nobody wants what you sell. They just want what they think your solution or service will help them gain, avoid, achieve, dodge, or acquire.

So the question is > what are your ideal clients really buying?

A lot of times it’s not the core thing that you provide.

• ?? No one buys insurance because they want a piece of paper.
• ?? No one hires a consultant because they want someone telling them what to do.
• ?? No one hires a remodeler because they want boards, drywall and paint.
• ?? No one buys tax preparation, because they want a folder full of filled out forms.

For example, we work with a firm that provides consulting to institutions of higher education. The institutions that buy these services need support and knowledge that enables them to meet their goals. The senior academic administrators, who purchase these services, really need resources and expertise to meet federal, state, and accreditation deadlines. This firm really sells accreditation compliance disguised as consulting.

So what does your market really buy?

Find ways to blend new channels into what already works

It's easier to amplify what's working than to explore something new. The statement you just read sounds like common sense but the problem is that most business owners and CEOs of small businesses don't know what's working, and even when they do, they may not think of it as marketing.

Referrals are a good example. Most small businesses get a lot of referrals, but they have no strategy to increase the number and quality of referrals.

Consequently, they don't employ "cross-channel amplification" — for instance, using demonstrations or speaking engagements to enhance referrals.

Double-down on what works for your business

There's one thing I know more than the sun rising tomorrow about business owners and that is they get bored with the same old-same old. They get drawn towards shiny objects to generate leads. 

But trying to implement and execute on every new marketing channel leads to frustration and wasted resources – particularly when many marketing channels (SEO, social media, email newsletters, blogging, etc.) are a long-term play for achieving the immediate needs of most small businesses.

A far better approach is to set a goal of finding your primary marketing channel and go to work on growing and amplifying that channel.

One of my favorite ways to determine the primary marketing channel is to think through your main source of clients back in the early years when you had little money to spend on marketing or your top clients from the past 6-8 months. Simply making a list of your top 10 clients, then asking “how did they find me?” can cut through the confusion quickly! 

For example, in working with the CEO of a midsize business, we discovered that they generate a significant portion of their business through direct sales efforts. 

Over the years as this organization gained some traction, they ultimately hit a plateau and wanted to start branching out into other marketing channels in search of more business development and leads.

One of the problems of branching out into other marketing channels is running the risk of destroying the success you’ve already created with your primary channel.

As with this organization they kept at their sales efforts, but was frustrated and scattered trying to figure out how to generate leads with digital marketing, content marketing, partnering, and advertising.