The most common mistake I see in marketing, especially in small business marketing, is committing to a tactic without a real plan.

Sometimes it might be driven by budget.

The business doesn’t have much to spend on marketing so they might decide to focus on an organic content strategy “to save money”. So they start posting nice pictures on Instagram, or their Facebook page. Or they create some short videos of their business and their team and share them on YouTube or Instagram. Or they write a few blog posts.

Then they wait for the money or enquiries to roll in. But they don’t. So the business owner loses interest, realises this takes too much of their time and concludes that this form of marketing doesn’t work.

Sometimes it’s driven by the latest trend.

Instagram is hot. Let’s try that.

Snapchat is hot. Let’s do that.

TikTok is hot. Let’s start an account.

And nothing happens. So the business owner loses interest, realises this takes too much of their time and concludes that this form of marketing doesn’t work.

Sometimes it involves using a tried and trusted tactic that has been around for years and gets results for other businesses in the industry.

Adwords. Facebook advertising. Display ads. Search engine optimisation (SEO). These have been proven to work for thousands of businesses. Let’s give one of these a try.

Suddenly they’ve burnt through the budget, there have been a lot of clicks and maybe a big increase in traffic. But no more enquiries or sales. So the business owner loses interest, realises it costs too much and concludes that this it doesn’t work.

I’ve seen it happen time and again. I’ve lost count of the number of business owners I have spoken to over the years who have tried tactics like these and told me they don’t work, or they got no results.

The problem is that every single time they focused on a tactic but never had a proper strategy.

All of these tactics can work, but they need to be part of a bigger plan to attract, nurture and then convert customers.

So…

Before you waste time on another social media post…

Before you waste another cent on paid advertising…

DO THIS FIRST

Take the time to build a proper marketing strategy.

A strategy that…

– identifies your ideal customers

– understands their “real” needs and desires

– clearly communicates how you can help them address these needs and desires

– has a way to move these people from passive “viewers” to interested leads

– has a process to nurture the relationship until they are ready to buy

– has a “Hero Product” that makes it easier to start doing business with you

Once you have a strategy like this…then you can start to plug in the best tactics to achieve your goals.

It’s the first step I take with any client irrespective of the reason they initially engaged to help their business.

I take my clients through my Marketing Accelerator in order to identify and map out all of these things first. Then we decide which tactics will suit the strategy.

And if you do this first, you will also start to enjoy great results from your marketing.