What A Documentary Taught Me About Marketing A Business

One morning, as I was walking on the treadmill, I was watching a documentary on Showtime called My Date with Drew (as in Drew Barrymore). A big fan of Drew Barrymore planned, through various efforts, to land a date with Drew Barrymore.

Oh yeah, and he put a deadline on his efforts so he only had 30 days to make it happen.

By the way, this may sound a little stalker-like but I was cheering for him by the time the show was over, and his intentions were totally innocent.

At this point, you may be wondering what this has to do with marketing a business...

And the answer is that everything he did has everything to do with marketing.

Watching as the documentary unfolded reminded me of every step it takes to launch a marketing campaign of any nature and how the combination of these steps leads to the ultimate goal at hand — business.

SPOILER ALERT: In this situation, he did end up landing a date with Drew Barrymore — although it took him about 87 days rather than the 30 days he originally gave himself to accomplish his goal.

Persistence And Consistency

More than anything else, the gentleman in this documentary was persistent and consistent.

On a daily basis, he was doing something to accomplish his goal of landing a date with Drew. He even recruited friends and family members to create a website, shoot the video coverage, land him interviews on local radio shows, and more.

He didn’t give it his all every once in a while. He didn't even give up after the 30-day deadline had come and gone. He journeyed on and on until he reached his goal.

If you learn nothing else about marketing, it’s that persistence and consistency do pay off in the end.

Even bad marketing is far better than not doing any marketing at all.

Even if you can only devote five minutes in your day to marketing, give it everything you have with the five minutes you have, and do it every single day.

If you can’t do it, find someone who can. You cannot send out one marketing email or make one phone call and then conclude that marketing doesn’t work for your business.

Marketing works for every business. It’s a matter of finding the right marketing strategies for your business. It may take three months, six months, or even a year for your efforts to pay off, but, eventually, your business can reap the benefits that marketing brings.

Combinations

Another thing that struck me while I was watching the documentary was the date seeker did not focus on one way to land his date with Drew. He combined his efforts in all sorts of ways.

He talked to people who knew people who knew people — even landing him a face-to-face meeting with actor Corey Feldman, whom it turns out dated Drew Barrymore when they were teenagers.

Radio interviews, a website, emails, mailing a DVD of the appeal to Drew to go out with him.

No matter if one angle didn’t work, he would simply turn the wheel and drive on to his next angle.

This is marketing 101, people. It’s about building a marketing program that works for your business. Marketing success does not tend to be one thing, but a combination of several marketing tasks, efforts, and initiatives that work together to make your business profitable and to reach your goals.

Accomplishment

While he failed quite a bit along the way, he eventually accomplished his goal and went on a lunch date with Drew.

She was tickled pink and flattered so much by his efforts and applauded all of the work he put into accomplishing his goal that she was more than happy to go out on a date with him. She even gave him a video camera as a gift (He is an aspiring filmmaker.).

Marketing efforts can and do lead to accomplishments for your business.

• Fundraising events (a major marketing ploy) raise millions of dollars each year
• Direct mail campaigns fuel millions of sales from online stores
• Emails urge customers to buy products or services on a daily basis
• Radio interviews bring businesses to the attention of listeners that they may never have otherwise reached

When you create and carry out your marketing plans and initiatives with consistency and persistence, your business can reach its goals, too.