small business marketing advice Archives

by Gail Oliver, Marketing Consultant

When I was working for a software company, way back when, we hired a new CEO. The new CEO decided he wanted to make his mark on the company so he came to me, the Marketing Director, and said his first order of business was that he wanted to change the company logo. The company had a zillion other problems, but somehow he felt that changing the logo would make a huge difference. I convinced him it wouldn’t, because it was just change for the sake of change.

marketing mistakes

Change Only What is Not Working

This is how you know the difference between a true marketing professional and someone who really doesn’t know what they are doing. Changing a logo is bad for so many reasons not to mention the expense involved in discarding every document that has it on it and replacing it all with the new logo, but I won’t go into all that. My point is, you want to change ONLY what is NOT working. Just because you are not having the success you would like, does not mean everything you are doing is wrong.

If It is Not Broken, Don’t Fix It

I had a client the other day and normally I advise on SEO, but she was actually turning up on the first page of Google. She was getting a lot of traffic, just not converting the traffic into sales. So I did not advise on anything that would affect her SEO, but instead advised her on other changes I felt she needed to make that were likely causing the lack of sales. My point again, only fix what is broken. Change for the sake of change is not marketing and you risk actually making things worse.

JC Penney’s Marketing Change Mistake

A good recent example is retailer, JCPenney. When new executives took over they changed the store’s pricing structure, moving away from their weekly coupons and time-limited discounts to instead just offering lower prices all the time. It turns out the coupons and special offers was the one thing customers liked and sales took a nose-dive even further. The executives just assumed that because the company wasn’t successful anymore that everything needed to be changed, but that was wrong. Just change the things customers don’t like, it’s that simple.

Hope you liked today’s post! Feel free to let me know in comments.

Thanks for reading,

Gail

Want to Know What Is and Is Not Working with Your Small Business?

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Here are my 8 keys to a successful business as well as the hard facts. THERE IS NO MAGIC SECRET. Anyone who tells you there is, is lying. If you expect success to come quickly and easily, you might as well stop now (but don’t).

Key to a Successful Business #1: Believing It Will Be Successful

It doesn’t matter if anyone else does, it only matters that you do. Negativity and doubt breed negative results.

Key to a Successful Business #2: Work Hard

I don’t know anyone who is successful and didn’t have a long, hard road getting there. Expect to invest endless hours in your business, especially in the beginning. But once you have a steady customer base and a good reputation, things will come easier. Keys to a Successful Business

Key to a Successful Business #3: Be Patient

Nothing happens overnight, and you really don’t want too much success too quickly if you are not prepared to handle it. That can hurt your business. So set goals you wish to achieve daily, monthly and yearly and see those as a measure of success to stay motivated.

Key to a Successful Business #4: Be Willing to Change

I am constantly reminded of the famous quote, “Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results“. If your current marketing efforts are not working, why keep doing them, try something else.

This art print is from LuciusArt on Etsy

Key to a Successful Business #5: Stop Compaing

I get this a lot. Why is this company that does the same thing I do, so much more successful? It could be a variety of reasons. First to market always helps. Maybe they have a large friends and family referral business. Maybe they had a personal contact at a major publication that brought substantial publicity. Maybe it’s just pure luck. Who knows for sure. Forget about them and focus on you. I have competitors, we all have competitors, but it is a large marketplace and you can carve out your own niche.

Key to a Successful Business #6: Take Advice

I have a lot of clients who come back to me asking why they are not getting results, only to find out they did not implement all the tactics I suggested, probably because they are hesitant to change (read #4 again). The truth is, you are not objective about your own business as you are just too close to it. So if you pay for professional advice trust what they are saying to do and do it.

Keys to a Successful Business

Key to a Successful Business #7: Invest in Your Business

Whether it is consulting services, advertising, graphic design, SEO, and so forth, you have to spend money to make money. If you are not willing to invest in your business, you are not serious about it.