Shallow Marketing Should Be One of the 7 Deadly Sins
Have you looked at your latest marketing efforts? Really looked? Was it something you just pulled together out of necessity, but it hasn’t really had a lasting impact because you didn’t take into account the overall business strategy? You want to make sure that you don’t look at your marketing strategy as existing in a vacuum. It has to be rooted much deeper than the surface of your business, otherwise it won’t stand up the business you’ve built.
Are you too focused on the packaging?
We’re currently redoing our website (stay tuned for more on that!) and I have been pouring so much brain power into what it will look like (really excessively). Instead, I should be focusing on what the website has to say and how user-friendly it is. Can people find us easily (SEO)? Can they find what they need on the site? Does it showcase our brand personality? Those are all questions that can be answered through great, refreshed content. You might have a great-looking site, but what happens when potential customers read your content?
It’s like when you meet someone who is really good-looking, but then they start talking and it turns out they are actually a terrible person. What you have to say as a brand and how you say it really does matter.
Are you focusing your budget on the wrong things and then finding that you are nickel and diming everywhere else?
It’s so easy to get caught up in the nitty gritty details, which means you are probably spending a lot of time and money in those areas when you might not need to. Do you really need to get a new professional headshot? Unless you look incredibly different (ie. Full head of hair vs. none left), then the answer is no. Hire a professional photographer instead at your next event to capture some great shots you may not have thought of to use in a promotional section on your website. Or perhaps not hiring someone to do your headshot means you can better afford to have an event period – maybe it’s a customer appreciation event that will drive business growth.
You need to keep your marketing spend thought process at a higher level. You have to take everything into account, not just that one little detail. If you are having trouble keeping on track, it could be a great investment to hire a third party consultant to help build your strategy, perhaps even to help implement it.
Are you unique?
We get so caught up in thinking that unique means we have to spend a lot of money on bigger and better, but that’s not the case. There are small start-ups that are more unique than some of the bigger guys. And you will find that those unique start-ups will grow faster and remain steadily in the growth phase longer (as long as they stay true to themselves), whereas the larger companies who play it safe or don’t connect with their customer base in a memorable way will plateau.
You can be unique if you inject a bit of personality into your brand and the campaigns you set out to do, whether grassroots or big and glitzy.
When was the last time you spoke to your customers?
You would be nowhere without customers, whether you are a company that sells to consumers or to businesses. The best thing you can do is find out what your customers want. If you are just starting out and have no customers yet, do your research and find out what your target audience likes. What’s the point of marketing at all if you aren’t going to grow your business through it? It’s better to target your efforts and tailor the strategy to reach your target audience than try to reach everyone. You can’t be all things to all people – your message will be watered down.
Make sure your marketing strategies are deeply rooted in the foundations of your business strategy, otherwise, your marketing efforts will only be skin deep, and you might be missing the point.
How deep does your marketing go?
