4 key Reminders when Growing your Business, Marketing, and Sales Strategies

Many entrepreneurs jump into growing a business under mistaken notions of how sales and marketing are used. To any experienced entrepreneur, they know that what they map out in theory rarely comes true in practice. The realities of growing a business are that it is extremely difficult, and dependent upon many identifiable and unidentifiable variables. To get the most out of marketing and advertising your business, this is how.

 Be Smart about your Investment

 Time, effort, and money. These things we invest in our businesses. When you catch on to marketing that works for your brand, don’t abandon it. The adage, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” applies here.

 There are many entrepreneurs who catch on to an advertising strategy that works only to end up bored with it and then, they turn away seeking new strategies. Wrong approach! When you find success in advertising, ride it until you have the sales you are satisfied with. Then take some of those revenues, and re-invest and diversify. The key to marketing is in finding a medium that is constantly turning out income for your business. Those revenues are what will allow your business success.

 1 is the Worst Number in Business

 When you are dependent on one of anything, you are opening up your business to failure. When you only have one employee in your marketing department, if they leave, your company tanks. Even if your company is making $1 million annually, if it all comes from a single source, your entire business can shut down if that source suddenly stops working for you. Always scale across multiples. This way, there is more support in the event that a ‘1’ does not work out.

 Consumer Lifecycles come in Phases

 Marketing comes in rhythms. For example, different times of year, consumers will be more open to engaging with your brand than at other times. This type of phase also repeats itself in lead generation. Let’s say you’ve generated a lead through paid search. After you have your lead on your website, you must now educate and nurture. Even though website optimization and paid search are different, they occupy the same marketing campaign because they are integral to the same customer lifecycle. It is therefore important to note where lead generation may bring a consumer and how they will be nurtured over time to maximize value.

 Be Clear on your Campaign’s Goals

 Advertising should never be ‘just to get the word out’. Any entrepreneur should have measurable goals for every marketing campaign and identify who is responsible to achieve those goals. For example, a campaign may be to get customers onto your website. That generates page views but won’t necessarily guarantee sales. There are limitations to what a marketing campaign can achieve so be realistic. They can get you leads but depending on how one’s campaign is structured, they are not always as qualified as you wish them to be.

 After all this, if you still think you can successfully grow a business, go for it. The desire to succeed however should not begin and end with where your excitement is placed. A lot of the time, marketing campaigns are boring.

 Keeping these 4 reminders in mind, find where success is and don’t budge until specific campaign goals have been attained.