Marketing Insanity: Doing the Same Old Thing, Expecting Different Results
We’ve all heard that quote about doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results as being the definition of insanity. And, let’s face it – for a lot of small businesses out there, your marketing feels like doing the same thing over and over again, hoping this time it turns out differently. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call “marketing insanity”. Now, it may not seem like you’re doing the same thing every time, but let me give you some examples of how a business might be making insane marketing mistakes.
Let’s say for example, you decide to build a website for your company or redesign the one you have. You built your site yourself last time, so this time you’ve decided to call in an expert – but in neither case did you assess your SEO or plan an SEO strategy. Or maybe, you ran an ad on the local radio station because it’s the station you listen to. For 3 months. And it didn’t work. So this time, you’ve decided to try another station for 2 months because you’re not going to get suckered into something that costs you money but doesn’t make you money. Too bad you didn’t gather any market research to determine if your customers even listen to the radio, let alone your favorite station. Maybe you hired someone to do your marketing because they’ve got experience working with the local paper or they know a little bit about graphic design or they just seemed nice. After all, you’ve been handling the marketing and it’s time to bring in an expert. But since you don’t know what your overall marketing goals are, you can’t communicate what you’d like your new marketing staff to accomplish.
Sure, on the surface, these examples may not seem like repetitively bad marketing efforts – but they are. And they make me insane when I see a perfectly good business struggling with something like this type of marketing insanity. We can’t fix our marketing problems if we aren’t willing to dig a little deeper and find out what the issues are and how we can resolve them.
If you want to put forth a certain style/brand/look for your website – then ask to see samples from your web designer. Look at their portfolio and have a conversation with them. Do they seem easy to work with, willing to listen and have some examples that pique your interest? Great – start there. But to just go based on price or the first listing in a search for web designers is INSANE! We’re talking about something as important as the 24/7 online presence for your business . Throw in SEO and we are talking about figuring out how to get your company website to even rank in the highly complex world of search engine optimization. Take the time to map out a plan with your web designer & your SEO consultant. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Maybe you decided on a radio ad for your business. Did you or the sales rep confirm any information about the station and the audience who will be listening? What about the time of day, length of spot and who your spot will be running alongside of? These things matter. If you didn’t get some basic information the last time, switching stations is just kind of INSANE! Is your customer even listening to the radio? Do they prefer downloads and podcasts? Who are they and where can you find them?
And what about hiring a marketing person? On the surface it sounds ideal – pass along the day to day of promoting and marketing your business to someone else. But, how qualified should this person be? And if they are not that qualified but eager to learn – how qualified are you to see to it that you have some clear expectations in place and understand what it takes to achieve them? If you were confused or overwhelmed when you ran your marketing, hiring someone equally overwhelmed or hoping someone will just figure it out as they go along is also a little INSANE. Crafting a strategy with some clear objectives will set the stage for mapping out your milestones so that you and your marketing staff can define expectations, meet challenges as they come and make sure your goals are met.
So – stop driving yourself insane. Take a deep breath, shift gears and really look at how you might do things differently this time. You’ll be glad you did!
