Marketing webinars, podcasts, and symposiums drive me nuts. They’re really good at getting business owners all fired up and focused on their marketing efforts for about a whole 15 minutes and making them believe they are walking away with the key to success.
Example: A former client flies out of state, pays for a hotel and spends an entire weekend attending networking, business building and marketing seminars. She’s specifically told if she opens her e-newsletters with “such and such” headline, she’ll be successful. This advice probably goes against all common sense, and my professional experience and recommendation, but she insists we try it anyways.
Result: A significant decrease, to what was once our super successful, e-mail open and click through rates. Imagine that.
Here’s what’s happening. Mr. So-and-So, found what worked for his business, in his location, and for his target market. Now, he makes money off hundreds, maybe thousands of eager business owners who want so badly for the answer to growing their business to be as simple as being told what to do. Or, as simple as repeating what some other business owner did.
I wish it worked that way. If it did, I could come up with one strategy, one method and apply it to all my clients. I could take on more clients, but still manage to cut my workload down, and I could kick back on a beach somewhere while my one strategy worked for everyone. Heck, I could just tell them what to do, then turn them loose and watch as their business booms.
However, here’s how it really works: Let’s pretend we have two bakeries, in the same town, maybe even located on the same street. Each bakery will still have its own brand identity, each will have things that make it unique, each will have differences in who shops their business and differences in what reasons those people choose one over the other.
It is because of these differences (and I only named a few, there are more factors that will play into why each one is, or isn’t, successful) that the two bakeries can’t do the exact same thing and both be successful.
Recap: You can’t sit in a room, or in front of your computer and watch a presentation on how to be successful. You can’t even be told what to do, because I guarantee you, it’s just not the same as letting a marketing professional execute/do it for you. Being successful isn’t that simple. However, if you invest your time and money in the right places, with the right people, at the right time, (don’t wait until you’re in hot water to focus on marketing) it could Be Simple.