Duh.
Right?
But hold on. There is more to this statement when we dig a little deeper.
At Judicious, Inc. we consult a lot of small businesses. From solopreneurs to law offices, and everything in between. One thing we routinely see is most small businesses aren’t marketing.
They may spend some money on ads once in a while. They may print out some flyers once a year. Any marketing that is done is very inconsistent and random. Basically, they do little bursts of marketing here and there.
We hear statements like, “We tried that and it didn’t work”. But if we had to guess, the marketing they are doing isn’t working because they’re not doing it consistently.
Marketing Starts to Work When..
You do your marketing activities day in and day out, week after week, month after month. It’s time and consistency that make marketing actually work and produce results. One-off “throw it on the wall and see if it sticks” activities do not help anything. They can actually hurt because they can give you false negatives.
What do we mean by false negatives?
You may try a marketing activity once and think it didn’t work for your business. However, it could be that specific marketing activity that you tried once actually yields your highest ROI. You just don’t know yet because you either haven’t given it enough time to work or haven’t iterated and improved on the process.
A classic example of this is print advertising. You try one ad in a publication or one blast of direct mail and quit. But your competitor kept at it for whatever reason and now doesn’t stop because it’s now producing profits for their business.
Why Consistency Makes Marketing Work
Touches & Impressions
The more a prospect gets touched by your business – meaning, saw an ad, heard someone talk about you, got an email, etc. – the closer they are to becoming a paying customer.
It has been said that it takes on average 7 to 17 touches before someone becomes a customer. So, that means they need repeated emails, ads, worth of mouth interactions before they decide to give you a dime.
If you’re not consistently marketing, you’re simply not building up the touches required to generate revenue for your business.
Iteration & Improvement
Everything we create usually turns out mediocre the first time around. That includes any marketing idea, campaign, creative, what have you.
You’re going to have to improve on each marketing activity over time to get it dialed to the point where it works. Therefore, you’re going to have to keep putting out ads, blog posts, social media updates so that you can have enough data to learn from and make improvements. There’s simply no other way around this fact of life.
Trust & Authority
The more your marketing is seen, the more:
- Trust and authority you build
- You appear to NOT be a fly-by-night operation
- You can show people you know what you’re talking about
All this happens by consistently marketing.
Another way to think about this is: the power of brand. The established companies that have delivered year after year and that constantly show up are usually the trusted choices by consumers. They don’t have to spend as much money getting found because their brand is now burned into the memories of the masses.
None of these companies got to where they are today by doing one lucky marketing activity once. They spent years marketing, building trust and becoming an authority. It’s a slow process, but it works.
There Are a Few Core Marketing Activities That Every Business Should Consistently Do
Regardless of the type of business, there are a few fundamental marketing activities every business in the twenty-first century should do. These activities are no-brainers that help build trust, authority and continuous impressions. They are:
- Written Website Content
- Email Marketing
- Social Media
1. Written Website Content
If you provide any products or services, you’re going to want to publish what you offer on your website. This might be the single biggest mistake we see most businesses make. Many have unfinished websites.
The first reason why you want written content related to your products and services is that search engines and now AI platforms learn about what you do. This is how people find your business in this day in age. And once its published it’s working for you 24-hours a day.
The next reason is people visit your website once they meet you or learn about your business. You’re going to want your website selling for you when that happens.
You can expand on this lucrative activity by launching a blog as well. You’ll see how a blog fits in nice and efficiently with the other two activities we’re going to discuss below.
2. Email Marketing
At Judicious, Inc. we believe your email list is sacred. It’s a list of customers and prospects that have given you permission to message them. It’s YOUR captive audience. And it’s something that you own. It’s really hard to have an email list taken away from you – whereas a social media account and accompanying follower list can disappear over night (either due to your account being hacked or the platform decides to shut you down).
As you build your list, your ability to touch more people grows as do your impression count. Remember the goal is to keep landing marketing touches. Email lists are perfect for that. And as your list gets bigger, the bigger the ROI gets.
Email marketing can be so incredibly powerful, that some businesses make almost all their money from their list. But it something you have to work on ideally from day one. You can’t neglect it. You have to keep it going, keep your list clean and learn what works and what doesn’t.
Your written website content and particularly your blog is a perfect fit for email marketing. If you’re smart, you can use your blog content as your email marketing content so you can kills two birds with one stone.
3. Social Media
A lot of businesses are decent at being on social media. If they are doing any marketing, they usually start there.
What we do find is that most small businesses are neglecting certain social media platforms that might be better suited for their business. They also tend to post very inconsistently to social media. But a huge portion of small businesses are still not utilizing social media at all.
Again, your written website content is perfect for social media. If you have aligned your content strategy well, you can use your website and blog for social media content. It’s a great way to link back to your webpages and capture new prospects.
Marketing Is a Business Machine That Needs to Be Oiled, Maintained & Kept Running
As you can see, your marketing operation shouldn’t be a sputtering old clunker, that stops and starts every few months. You want it well oiled and always running. That’s how you produce returns from it. That’s how you show the world you’re still in business.
Have you ever visited a Facebook page for a business and there hasn’t been a post in 5 years? You ask yourself, “Are they still in business?”. Welp, that’s a great example of why you need to keep your marketing going and keep it consistent. You have to build those impressions, refine your offers and messaging along the way. It’s simply the work that needs to get done.
Judicious, Inc. Can Do Your Marketing for a Fraction of the Cost
Small businesses are usually under-gunned, have smaller budgets, and just don’t have the time to keep marketing running smoothly. We know. We witness this reality constantly.
At Judicious, Inc. we fulfill marketing for small businesses. We handle the daily marketing activities, record and analyze our findings, and iterate on the process.
The best part is we are a fraction of the cost of having an in-house marketing team. There’s no payroll tax, benefits or salaries to worry about. Just choose a set of hours you’re comfortable with and we’ll get cracking. If or when you want to scale up, you say the word.
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