Whether you're a small-business owner, marketing director, communicator at the coordinator level or you just wear a lot of hats, marketing is constantly on companies’ minds - and for good reason: it’s vital to the success of any organization. Marketing feeds the machine, and it takes time, finesse, patience, planning, resources and consistency to execute a worthwhile marketing plan.
And for many, this is where they go down the wrong path.
People become too busy to care about marketing. They say they don't have the budget to keep it up or see the need to invest their hard-earned dollars into what is often deemed “overhead.” When sales are bad, many business leaders either panic and pull the plug completely or panic and desperately seek cheap marketing solutions in hopes of reclaiming market position or make up for a bad quarter.
Too often, we see clients who are in one of these two scenarios. they desperately need help with their marketing and really do mean well (things will be different this time, they say!), but as soon as things are back to normal or they see a streak of success, the marketing mindset fades away.
Marketing isn’t a band-aid. It’s not a quick fix for bad sales and it’s not a substitute for quality relationship-building.
Marketing is food. It keeps you alive and thriving. Every company needs marketing. “Of course, they do!” they’ll say. Everyone knows this basic fact, but when it’s time for consistency or if their mind wanders for a month or two, they forget about it and forget its value until they don’t, and by then the momentum is gone. Would you stop eating next week because you had a good meal today?
Challenge yourself and your organization to plan out a marketing strategy and stick to it for 6 months. We’re talking unwavering discipline and commitment in good times and bad. Even if you might not be spending a lot of time on it or investing a lot of resources into it, it’s better to do something regularly than to wait and do it when you're forced to or not at all.
As the famous JFK quote goes...
Here’s where we want to hear from you:
What marketing challenges keep you up at night?
Are there any areas in which you feel need more consistency?
What have you tried that didn’t work?
Drop me a line at luke@toucanadvertising.co and let’s talk it through. No strings attached.
Who knows? Maybe it’s time to repair the roof.
Toucan is a New Orleans-based advertising agency.
