Why is marketing so hard these days?

So, your prospective customer is looking for a new accountant/solicitor/designer/coach (replace according to your needs!) … they simply go to Google, right?

And, of course, that is precisely what happens thousands of times per day. This is where you need a clear focus on your website optimisation across three minimum areas:

• Search Engine Optimisation for organic search
• Pay-Per-Click Optimisation for paid Google/Facebook/etc adverts
• Site Conversion Optimisation to actually convert a visitor to a lead/prospect/sale

HOWEVER … the problem is that buyers are rarely ready to act there and then. In reality, they’re looking to research potential suppliers, find out more about the area they’ve got a problem with and, potentially, even self-serve the solution. On this modern basis, where the customer doesn’t want you to know about them, how do you fare?

Sales and Marketing techniques are complex and convoluted – the industry is full of buzz words to baffle the common business owner but the actual process is as old as time itself … persuade the prospect that you are the right supplier for them! This persuasion is normally based on repetition, education, brand identity, trust, reputation and recommendation.

This is, of course, where your strategic marketing plan (you’ve got one, right?) gets complicated because ‘how’ to you create all these ‘touchpoints’ and influences. Just ‘how’ do you become so ingrained in your prospects’ consciousness that they simply ‘KNOW’ that they want to use your service. ‘How’ do you become an influencer in your industry? ‘How’ do you achieve brand dominance?

This is where ‘marketing’ has emotionally got to, and the answer is to do ‘everything’ on ‘every platform’ for ‘every scenario possible’! To be noisy, insightful, disruptive and educational. To network, to be a thought leader, to lecture and to be resourceful. To give and share your knowledge in the hope that it positions you well. To use content marketing systems, to email, to advertise, to blog, to exhibit, to publish videos and podcasts, to set up subscription systems, and so on!

In the real world, this is hard to do, massively time-consuming, costly and difficult to manage. But the businesses that do it well benefit from their efforts and create ever-increasing distance between them and their competitors, ultimately making the process easier in the end.

The purpose of this article isn’t to provide answers but to provide context for a discussion. What do you think, what are your solutions, how do you square the circle? I’d love to hear from you.