Many small business owners hold negative beliefs about marketing that just aren’t true. “Marketing is hard,” they say. “Marketing is expensive.” “You can only do marketing if you want to feel like a used car salesman.” 
Another thing I hear about marketing is that it doesn’t work. That’s not exactly true, but it’s not really a lie either. In general, I would call this a half-truth. The other half of this half-truth would be “marketing always works.”
What I mean is: Even the best marketing techniques may fail a large percentage of the time. Shocked?
Think about baseball. The very best player in the game, Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins, had a batting average of .365 for the 2009 season. That means he “failed” to get a hit over 60% of the time. And he was the American League’s Most Valuable Player!
Most people have about the same results from their marketing and feel disappointed. However, I would encourage you to reconsider (and feel better about your results).
Newsflash: All of your marketing is not going to work every single time!
When I worked at the headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company, one of the premier marketing companies in the world, we saw hundreds of efforts fail every year.
Sometimes an idea was a hit in one country, but a failure in another. In some cases, the local team took a perfectly good idea and ruined it with poor execution. Still other times, the marketing technique itself – whether an ad, a promotion or a new product – was just rotten to start with.
Marketing isn’t going to work all the time, but it shouldn’t fail all the time either. Here are ten ways to ensure that you get more success.
1. Test everything! It’s helpful to think of marketing as an ongoing learning experience. You should test many different of strategies, tactics and messages. Plan time for reflection on your results.
2. Set realistic intentions. Don’t expect a 100% return on your Facebook invitation to a teleseminar. Every prospect who receives a free consultation may not hire you on the spot. You’ll feel a lot of failure if your expectations are too high.
3. Stick to a plan. Marketing plans don’t need to be complicated; that can lead to failure, too. Instead, select three to five things you’ll do over the year and write detailed plans for them. Then, just do it. Don’t get distracted by a bunch of new and different ideas. Focus on your simple plan and see what works.
4. Keep your plan alive by revising and updating it. It may sound like a contradiction to the previous point, but instead of constantly seeking new tactics, adapt and adjust your original ideas over the course of the year to make them work better. If you’re networking, you can test new elevator speeches or venues.
You’re likely to get better results by improving something that works rather than always trying new things. Of course, you should always test out new techniques, but be prepared – many will not work perfectly the first time.
5. Put in place ways to evaluate or measure the results. How will you know if they work or not? Try using tracking methods, like asking “Who may we thank for sending you to us?” or having a dedicated landing page (unique url).
6. Focus more on active than passive marketing techniques. I’ll give you an example. Generally, response rates to phone calls (active) tend to be better than those to letters (passive). So, if you’re planning a mailing to decision makers, follow it up with a phone call to each of them. It may seem like you’ll face more rejection, but actually, you’ll get better overall results.
7. Consistency is more important that quantity. Instead of being a member of every organization in town, join one and attend regularly. Likewise, you’ll find you get better results from doing one marketing method monthly, excellently, than trying to do ten things haphazardly.
[Honestly, one thing is enough. For the first 15 years of my career I only used one technique, networking. It worked!]
8. Tell people what to do and why. Be sure to include the key ingredients in every marketing effort: a targeted message and a call to action.
9. Become a student of marketing. The more you know about marketing, the better you’ll be able to test, improve and learn from your efforts. Read books on your favorite kinds of marketing, and ask business buddies about their experiences. One of my favorite questions at networking events is “How do you attract customers to your business?” I’m collecting marketing best practices while I network.
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