Best Marketing PracticeThe best marketing practice, by far, is taking consistent action.
The magic formula for service business marketing
You were expecting something more exciting, perhaps? Consistent action is the number one difference between small business owners who succeed and small business owners who wish they succeeded. In my opinion, good marketing is like a good baseball game. I love the game of baseball. I love the sights of the field, the smells of hotdogs and popcorn, and hearing the fans screaming at the ‘crack’ of the bat. I also love the game of marketing. And it IS a game... :) Quite simply, baseball games are won because batters get up to bat, they get on base, they move around the bases, and they cross home plate — all without being called out in the process. All of this, of course, while preventing the other team from doing the same thing. Most batters get on base by hitting a single, maybe a double, or maybe they even get walked — it’s a freebie! What really matters is that they consistently get on base and eventually cross home plate. Often, simply getting on base may not look glamorous and it may not generate huge cheers; however, this is where most of the work in the game is happening. Every now and then, with great fanfare or in a quiet, unexpected moment, someone hits a home run. If it’s an exceptional day and the rest of the team has been doing their job of simply getting on base, the bases will be loaded, turning that simple home run into a grand slam. Pretty exciting stuff! However, if every batter stepped up to bat with the intention or expectation of hitting a home run every time, more times than not they’d be disappointed. Best marketing practice is very similar to a baseball game. If you plan only one big marketing activity every once in a while and hope for a grand slam result, you will likely be disappointed. Great results can certainly happen – I just wouldn’t bet the success of your business on that approach. Instead, the best marketing practice is to be on the constant lookout for ways you can regularly get base hits or doubles.
Rather than putting all your marketing eggs in one basket, choose a variety of consistent (again, that's the best marketing practice!) business-building and marketing activities all designed to reach your ideal client, and work on increasing your batting average, hit by hit, in each of the activities. For example, how often are you staying in contact with current or past clients? Do you send thank you cards when you get a referral? How many other professionals know what you do and can easily talk about you to their clients? Take the pressure off yourself (and on any one strategy) to have home run results every time. Be consistent, get on first, move the batters around the bases – and cross home plate. 1. Choose one activity to grow your business that you will commit to doing regularly and put it on your schedule! 2. Focus on simply getting as many base hits as possible...and enjoy the home runs when they show up. Choosing the best marketing practice of simple, consistent, daily action wins the Marketing World Series every time.
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