Are You Guilty Of Stop Start Marketing?

I often find that people contact me when they need new customers. Sure I hear you say, that is what you do isn't it help businesses to grow by finding them new customers. Well yes it is but the reason why I bring it up is that so often business owners leave it until business is quiet before they consider doing any marketing.

Then invariably they are under pressure and looking for a quick fix to help them get going again. They throw time and money at their marketing just wanting to get more customers. Then once things pick up they abandon their marketing claiming that they are too busy servicing their clients to worry about marketing. When business is thin on ground then they start marketing again but when they are busy they stop.

There are a number of problems with this way of approaching your marketing. First of all it is much more expensive to produce a quick knee jerk reaction campaign than it is to think through a much more targeted and effective campaign. This type of marketing also tends not to be properly tested and measured and is therefore highly wasteful.

By doing unplanned and unstructured marketing you also run the risk of sending out a confusing message to prospects as there is little consistency with your approach. This can actually have the opposite effect and be more damaging in the long run.

It can be relatively easy to avoid these pitfalls and take a step back and put in place a plan to methodically structure and systemize your marketing.

Taking the time to do this might be time consuming in the short term but it will reap you long term benefits. Having a predictable measured marketing strategy will allow you to quickly scale up in your business in the future without taking up significantly more of your time.

By: Matt Eve

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Copyright 2007 by Matt Eve of Better Business Results. Better Business Results is a marketing consultancy based in Ireland for more upto date articles please visit our Irish business and marketing blog