What Marketing Can’t Do For You

I thought I'd clear up some misconceptions about marketing in this two-part series: What Marketing Can Do for You and What Marketing Can't Do for You. This issue is about what marketing can't do. While there's no doubt that a solid marketing program can boost your business, it can't fix everything. Below are 5 things that marketing cannot do for you: 1. Marketing will not make you an overnight success. Just because you start a marketing program doesn't mean you'll immediately see your business explode. Marketing is about getting your name in front of your target market on a regular basis until they finally decide to give you a try. On that note, if you're struggling right now—sales are down, a new business isn't taking off the way you planned—depending on how big the problem is, a marketing program may not be enough to save you. A successful marketing program takes time to work and probably a little money too. If you're panicking about one (or more likely both), you may need to start looking for other options. 2. Marketing is not about doing something once and forgetting about it. Test of the best marketers. And test. And test. For example, your website may not be converting visitors to customers as well as it should. You can hire a copywriter to tweak it for you. You can test different elements to see what increases your conversion rate. This is one way to use testing. You can also test different headlines, different offers, etc. 3. Marketing can't fix a bad experience. This is a big one. If your customers have a bad experience with your products or services, or with your customer service representatives or salespeople, etc., so be it. Even worse, not only have you lost a customer for good, but that customer is likely to tell others about their bad experience. Now you have also lost more potential customers. Marketing can get people in the door, but it can't ensure they'll have an experience they'll want to repeat. Before you assume you need more marketing, take a moment to make sure your current customers are truly happy with your business. 4. Marketing can't fix a broken business. Like tip #3, marketing can't solve cash flow problems or employee problems. Okay, I hear you all saying, “Obviously marketing can't solve cash flow problems. Do you think we are stupid? My answer is no, I don't think you are stupid at all. I think what happens is sometimes you get so immersed in the day-to-day challenges of running a business that you can't see the forest for the trees. Let me explain. Let's say you have a business that is struggling with cash flow. The first thing that comes to mind may be a marketing boost. After all, the idea of ​​marketing is to increase revenue. On the surface it makes sense. However, if you look a little closer, you may find that there are expenses that are not in order or are not receiving invoices on time. So what you should be fixing is your accounting problems, rather than changing your marketing. 5. Marketing cannot make people buy things they either don't want or can't afford. It doesn't matter how great your product or service is, if you're selling to people who either aren't interested or don't have the means to buy it, then your marketing will fail no matter how great it may be. So basically it all boils down to this, before you decide you need more marketing, take some time to make sure that marketing is really the right fit for your business. Creativity Exercise — Reality Check Before you embark on a new marketing program, take some time to analyze what's really going on in your business. Do you really need a marketing program or is your problem: * You are unable to close the leads you have * You are not invoicing on time or following up on unpaid bills * Your customers are not satisfied with the product or service * Your customers are having a bad experience with technical support or something else is not working in your process target twitch correct *You are already passionate about what you do* Your business has too many expenses and so on. Basically, I want you to make sure that marketing is really your problem before you mess with it. If you want to grow your business, you should promote your business consistently. But if you use marketing as a band-aid for some other problem, you can get into trouble.