I can’t tell you how often people tell me that marketing just doesn’t work for them. They tell me all the tactics they have tried — online ads, SEO, print ads, emails, social media, and so on — and how they all yielded nothing.
But the truth is you can’t make a sale without marketing.
When I point that out, people often object: “Well, my business comes from referrals.”
Indeed, many small businesses rely heavily on referrals from past customers or family and friends at the start. But word-of-mouth is marketing — usually, very effective marketing!
This disconnect is due to a lack of understanding about what marketing really is at its core. Quite simply, it is the process of making people aware of your business and convincing them to make a purchase.
It’s impossible for someone to purchase from you if they did not:
- first discover your business and
- then decide to buy what you offer.
There’s no scenario where those two steps don’t happen before making a sale. The difference is that some businesses are intentionally marketing… and some are not. Some are being proactive… and some are just waiting to be discovered.
If your business relies heavily on word-of-mouth only, you likely see big ups and downs in terms of the volume of leads you are getting. This is because you have little control over when someone makes a referral.
How can you gain some control over those ebbs and flows? Create a plan.
Set up a free consultation to learn how we can help you not only craft a plan designed to bolster your unique business, but also put that plan into action.
