Ineffective marketing could destroy a small business – part three

If your business is like most others, you probably rely on and use just one or two main forms of marketing to grow your business … this might be advertising, or referrals, direct mail, website, emails, PR, telemarketing, partnerships or strategic alliances, etc.

If you want to grow your business more rapidly, one of your objectives should be to turn your business into a ‘multi – level marketing engine’ by combining several of these marketing approaches at the same time.

Research suggests that if a business goes from using one or two main marketing methods to say eight, over a twelve-month period, it grows by 100-300%.

So, if it’s that simple, why aren’t more businesses doing it? There are two main reasons … the first is they just don’t know how (they are not marketing experts but are good at their business) and they haven’t realised that you will never fulfil your business potential if marketing isn’t a top priority (how do more people learn about business products or services).

The second reason is … FEAR. It’s that ‘what if’ doubting moment that happens to all of us! Take this scenario … if someone suggested that you implement six new marketing strategies on top of the two you do next week, you would be understandably be concerned that you might lose money if the strategies went wrong or if they were a success, the business might not be able to cope with such rapid growth?

Enter the principle of ‘testing and measuring’ which is possibly one of the most important marketing concepts there are. The principle of this is simple. Each month you test one or two new marketing methods on a smallish scale. Testing small and measuring the results helps you recognise what works and what doesn’t. When it works, you roll it out on a larger scale.

How simple is that? Guess how many do that …  research shows less than 1 in 50! Now, you’ll be testing all your marketing, won’t you? It’ll help you stay ahead of your competition, if they don’t!

Naturally before running off and doing any of this, test and measure the marketing you are doing now … you would be amazed how many businesses market themselves quite well, but never measure results, so they don’t know what works … potentially wasting a whole lot of money.

So, plan as an objective to discover one new marketing approach each month that works for your business, using testing and measuring, then in twelve months you’ll have the eight marketing activities that produce results and you now are a ‘multi – level marketing engine’, enjoying the stability and increased profit it brings to your business.

Is that helpful information? Give us a call if you want us to help your business become a ‘multi – level marketing engine’.

Next time … the subject will be ‘email Marketing’.