If You're Not Marketing, You're Stagnating
You've seen those Crest ads that threaten ominously, "If you're not whitening, you're yellowing." DUN-DUN-DUN. One of the best marketing strategies ever, in my opinion, save for the lack of a comma. I think about it every time I forget to brush my teeth. (Hey, I have my own home business and a toddler; don't judge.) Today, as I was brushing my teeth - yes, seriously, I was thinking about how I recently advised someone that if they continued to start and stop, then start and stop, their marketing efforts, it was like having to rebuild the momentum every time. The teeth whitening parallel suddenly slapped me upside the head.
Every time you put something out there - a Facebook update, a print ad, a blog post - and then don't put anything else out for a while, your marketing efforts are quite…yellow by that time. With Facebook, the less you post, the less people will comment and share, and the less your posts will even appear in people's news feeds. With blog posts, if someone visits your blog and sees the last post you made was a year ago, it won't look like your business is staying very current. I can vouch for this because my side project, a self-love-boosting blog and shop for women and girls, hasn't received quite the same amount of attention as it used to since my daughter was born, and its popularity has suffered because of that. I do practice what I preach for my business, however.
You might be satisfied with your current number of customers right now, but every company loses customers at some point for one reason or another, so it's smart to continue your marketing efforts even when things are good.
So how can you ensure that you don't fall into the yellowing trap? You're running a business, possibly with employees underneath you that you feel responsible for. You have family, friends, pets, a home, bills, dentist appointments, and the occasional episode of "Dracula" vying for your attention. How in the world are you also supposed to keep your advertising efforts going with any sort of consistency?
Please don't ask an existing employee to cover this for you on top of their already-demanding job (which is possibly more demanding than it might look from the outside looking in) unless you're willing to comp them with overtime or a raise. It's much too difficult for one person to balance two jobs. Trust me, I know…I was forced to do it for years at my former corporate job for only one salary, and let's just say I was not highly motivated. It also takes much more time and effort to brainstorm and research great social media posts and article topics than most people have the time and patience for. See, it's not just about post frequency but also post quality; what you're sharing needs to be memorable to people and must engage them to act in some way. Better to have one person devoted to these efforts. But the good news is that you don't have to bring on another in-house employee who needs a salary and benefits.
I don't just call my Dandelions to Darts service the "marketing-department-in-a-box" for nothing. While you won't have the opportunity to crash my office and catch me in the act of watching a YouTube video of a cute penguin, you can count on me to keep your marketing efforts going and thereby prevent your business' presence - and business itself - from stagnating.
Behold, my SPTFRP (Stagnation Prevention Tactical Formula Recipe Program):
Social Media Takeover - posting as you on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest on methodical days and times
Monthly blog post and/or an article for print publications and websites - either ghostwritten or with my byline
Regular print ads in the publications that will best target your ideal customers
Monthly business Yelp page maintenance and updates
Monthly email newsletter design and content
With this consistent and strategically-devised plan, your business' presence will stay current and on clients' radars. You also get the added bonus of establishing an extra reputation for expertise in your field, making your business top of mind when people need your product or service.
Sign up today. What're you waiting - I mean, stagnating - for?
