Stop Marketing? The 3 C’s you stop.
When you stop marketing, you stop creating, collaborating and communicating. Now listen here, dear small b.
When a new client joins us, the first question we ask is, how often do you do marketing?
As in, how often do you sit down, look at your analytics, send a survey, send a thank you email, collaborate with a partner for a campaign or see what people are saying about your service or product.
I can tell you that almost every person we speak to (except for one of our clients), puts a speepish look on their face and admits it’s an area they need to pay more attention to. Almost 99.8% of my paid clients will tell you that that’s why they’re hiring you.
Marketers are the first ones you call you when sales go bad and the first ones to be cut when sales are going well. So what happens when we meet in the middle? Marketing harmony! Here’s what I mean …
When you stop marketing, you stop, what I call the three C’s;
Creating, Collaborating and Communicating.
Creating -
meaning you stop thinking outside the square, you stop thinking about what your clients want because you’re too wrapped up in other operational small business avenues. Creativity can come when you’re listening to a customer, reading feedback or going through your analytics. Hello sales driver?
This month’s guest on the small b’s IGTV is Mia Fileman, founder of Campaign Del Mar.
Advice from Mia’s website quotes “Genuinely cut through clutter with creative ideas. Creativity of the future of business advantage.”
Collaborating -
the dove tail from creating. When you stop thinking about marketing, your collaborations stop. The thought of partnering with another business, influencer or event to boost your brand awareness. Collaborating can further establish you within your local trade area, not just because you might be paying for the collaboration, but because you can leverage from your collaborators' audience. A double hit of awareness.
Communicating -
crucial.
When you stop talking to your customer, your community and your partners, you stop it all. Stop delivering your magic, your story, your products' unique offer and profit.
Aside from the top 3 points above - when you stop marketing, sales start to weaken, a decrease in brand loyalty (consumer bond) declines, your growth starts to go stagnant and you start to find people / markets to blame. There’s only so much our market environments are responsible for - at some point, if you’ve stopped marketing then we need to look in the mirror!
So what if your marketing became a discipline, a part of your work ethic to ensure your three C’s stay alive and keep working to drive your bottom line? Our challenge for small businesses is to try it for a month. Compare it with last month and see what the data says.
As always, if you need marketing support, tools or processes to help your business thrive - we’re here. Ready to cheerlead you on.
EVENT + COLLABORATION: Tune in (IGTV @thesmallbproject) on Monday 27 September at 7pm to join Mia Fileman from Campaign Del Mar educate us on why we should care about campaign marketing. Tip; she’s the jam - you won’t won’t to miss this one.
