As a marketing consultant I spend most days giving my clients advice on how they can build their business. This advice covers areas like having a strong and consistent corporate image, developing smart promotional material, where to advertise, improving customer service, developing internet strategies, public relations and a host of other related subjects. I advise on how much money the business should commit to marketing and when they should commit it. I spell this out and make it as clear as possible. My aim is always to give my clients a very clear, straightforward plan of attack that they can implement themselves.
This is often where things come unstuck. Most business owners are time deprived – to the maximum. Marketing really is low on the day to day priority list as the multitude of daily commitments roll in. The end result can often be that the business has the strategy in front of them but it never gets implemented.
So what are the options? I think there are three to choose from. Firstly you can contract a marketing consultant to implement the marketing strategy for you. Obviously this comes at a cost, but the work is being done by a professional. Secondly you can employ a marketing person (even on a part time basis). There are good people looking for marketing jobs all the time. And finally, the business owner can restructure their daily workload to give them time to be dedicated to marketing the business (from my experience this rarely happens no matter how well intentioned the business owner may be).
The most important consideration though is that if you are serious about growing your business and attracting more customers, marketing needs to be a priority. Time and financial resources need to be committed on a weekly basis. Finding and keeping new customers involves commitment – losing them is easy.
So to summarise, once you have a clear marketing strategy you need to have a realistic plan to implement the ideas. You can choose how you want to implement the plan but make the decision and stick to it. Commit to making marketing a priority and your business will reap the rewards.
Pretty great post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing on your feed and I am hoping you write again very soon!
Hey there, I dont know how i got here but I find your posts are very helpful and give a good insight. i know im going to subscribe.
There is certainly a lot to know about this subject. I really
like all of the points you’ve made.