A colleague of mine in Colorado, a business coach, asked me to assess a marketing proposal that her client had received from a local small business marketing firm. I was happy to help her out and provide my perspective on what the marketing consultant had proposed.
Forwarded to me was an email summarizing the cost and recommended marketing tactics (side note – surprising to not see a proposal). The email was a series of marketing tactics. All may be legitimate options for this small business seeking marketing support, but my immediate questions were: what is the strategy? how is success going to be measured? is there a marketing plan or just a laundry list of tactics? The client and the marketing firm were BOTH operating in the marketing wilderness – losing the forest from the trees by focusing on marketing tactics (e.g, Facebook, Google +, website, advertising, etc).
It is not easy, but resist the temptation to be sucked into the marketing wilderness! The gravitational pull is strong – especially these days with the attraction and pressure to jump into the social media section of the wilderness with both feet and no focus or strategy (in many cases).
If you are planning to strengthen your marketing efforts – great. But don’t lose your solid business sense in the process. Be sure you have a clear strategy, metrics to track success and a small business marketing consultant that is NOT just doing marketing tactics. Establish clear goals (not just tactics) and define what success will be and how it will be measured. THEN, prioritize the marketing tactics that will best support the goals and work within your budget. A marketing consultant worth their fees will embrace accountability and not work in the wilderness. Don’t confuse marketing activity with progress. Stay out of the marketing wilderness. In addition to being overcrowded, it is truly a jungle.
