Don’t confuse a marketing strategy with random marketing activities. A marketing strategy means you have a clear plan with systems in place that allow you to repeat those systems and obtain consistent results. A marketing strategy isn’t about hoping you will get a result, but rather knowing you will get a result because you can track and measure every component of your system. It’s not as complicated as it may sound, and it’s certainly worth the effort you put into it.
Your marketing exists for a purpose. Pleasing someone else, looking good, or developing a brand aren’t acceptable purposes. Those are things an advertising sales representative, a printer, or a graphic designer will try to sell you on to part you from your money without providing you with a measurable outcome. The purpose of marketing is to generate a potential customer. If your marketing doesn’t or can’t consistently and predictably generate potential customers stop doing it because you’re wasting your money.
The objective of marketing is to start a connection with a complete stranger that will lead to an appointment. The better and stronger you can make that initial connection the sooner you will fill your appointment calendar with the people who want to do business with you, and the sooner you can stop wasting your time trolling for business in all the wrong places. Marketing has many different forms and media and many different options to initiate that first connection. You can’t expect good marketing results when you don’t know how to make the connections that will get you the outcome you want.
Nothing happens until you or your marketing systems are put into action. You need a good strategy that produces specific actions that need to be taken. Initially you will be testing these actions on a small scale until you know what works. When you know what works you have the opportunity to ramp up your actions and make them automatic.
Ultimately your marketing strategy is only as good as the results it produces. If you aren’t getting the results you want and you know you have a sound strategy it’s a clear sign you didn’t do something right. Pinpoint the problem and make corrections and adaptations. Some places to look include: your message doesn’t match the market, your using the wrong media for the market you’re trying to reach, you haven’t made an emotional connection, or you didn’t provide a clear and pressing reason for the receiver to take action.