I can’t decide. Are the fundamentals of our economy good or bad? Sure, the market is up, but prices are higher than ever, and it’s getting harder and harder to make a profit.
And now we have an election to contend with. Should we wait to make any changes to our strategy? Should we hold off on any new marketing initiatives?
Here’s the thing. I could have written all that in any election year, and you’d say, “Good point, Jon.” There are always excuses to wait. But what are you waiting for?
Are you waiting for a better economy to start getting serious about your marketing? Or are you so busy with new business that you think, “We don’t need to market. We’re good”?
Here’s the simple truth… you always need marketing. Let’s discuss.
Remember the old story of the ant and the grasshopper? I know; it annoyed me, too, mostly because I always identified with the grasshopper. So, when winter came, it was a whole scene of “I told you so.”
OK, so there’s a little peak into my psyche. In case you’re not familiar with the story, the basic premise is that the ant packs food away all summer to prepare for the lean winter times.
Meanwhile, the grasshopper eats and lounges through the summer and refuses to prepare for winter. So, when winter comes, the grasshopper must beg the ant for food.
The moral of the story isn’t to befriend an ant; it’s to always be ready for the lean times.
The same is true in business. If things are going great for you right now, you must prepare for winter. Of course, this means being financially smart. But it also means you need to invest in smart marketing.
This is where strategy makes a big difference. Effective marketing campaigns aren’t always about making the phone ring.
If business is good for you, you might want to focus on building brand awareness. Here’s a definition of Brand Awareness from HubSpot:
"Brand awareness is a marketing term that refers to how familiar your target audience is with your brand and how well they recognize it. Brands with high brand awareness are generally referred to as ‘trending,’ ‘buzzworthy,’ or simply ‘popular.’ Establishing brand awareness is valuable when marketing and promoting your company and products, especially in the early stages of a business."
An established business might have good brand awareness, especially if times are good. That said, if you’re planning ahead, you will identify trends and be able to position your brand for future opportunities.
This is called hedging your bets. If you are building awareness around a lesser-known product or service, when the popular ones lose traction, you are well-positioned to take advantage of an emerging trend.
This requires research, planning, and a strategic approach. It also involves investing some of the profits in a plan for the future. This is how you store your food for the coming winter. As what the kids call “being an ant, bruh.”
And if you are super busy right now, you’ll need some help, right? I don’t care what the job market looks like. It’s almost always hard to find the right people.
Here’s what no one is telling you. Well, I’m about to. Your branding greatly impacts the kind of employees you attract.
Prospective talent will look at everything you’ve put into the world, especially in a tough job market, but in any market. And the younger generations seem to care more and more about your culture, your mission, and even your community involvement.
They will look at your website, social media, and possibly even the social media of your leadership team members. If your brand, messaging, and marketing are offputting, incomplete, or misleading, they will hurt your chances of attracting candidates who match your culture and are the right fit for the job.
And, being super busy, you will need the right people. Otherwise, your customer experience will suffer. Marketing plays a huge role in this.
Now, if your business is suffering or your industry is going through a rough patch, you absolutely need marketing. Unfortunately, many businesses will seek quick, tactical marketing solutions in this situation.
This is when a desperate company tells a marketing firm, “We need traffic, leads, sales, whatever.” Then the marketing firm says, “Great, we can do that. Here’s a proposal for some SEO, PPC, social media marketing, or whatever.”
If you read that and thought, “Yeah, so, isn’t that how it works?” Sure, it happens all the time. Here’s the problem. It’s a terrible way to do marketing.
First, marketing from desperation will often turn off your target audience or, worse yet, not even reach them.
Second, you are simply guessing without any strategy or planning. When was the last time you paid for a Google Ad or social media ad campaign and ended up with nothing to show for it?
Tactical marketing efforts without strategy are a waste of time. This is not hyperbole; it is simply truth. Yet, so many businesses pay for marketing services with zero strategy and wonder why it didn’t work. Stop doing this.
Find a company that takes the time to understand your company and your audience and is thoughtful and meticulous about developing a go-to-market strategy that makes sense and will deliver.
This costs money—it should cost money—it’s a lot of work. But it’s either pay now and get a return or don’t and take your chances. I’ll see you in six months when the tactics fail again.
Am I being too harsh? I’d like to think I am just being honest, and, honestly, I want to save you from repeatedly making the same mistake.
Now that I am standing firmly on my soapbox, I’m going to really preach. I never understand why companies cut marketing when times are tough. It’s counterintuitive to me.
Now is the time to get super serious about your marketing. I’m not saying you should spend a ton of money on a bunch of tactics. We talked about this, remember?
No, this is the time when strategy is most important.
No one likes to put themselves under the microscope, but I’m telling you, this is the best time for that. Things clearly are not working.
Now is the time to take a hard look at the following:
Yes, all of this costs money. But if you want to turn things around, you must do this. Otherwise, as the saying goes, your marketing dollars will be wasted putting lipstick on a pig.
This is tough love. It’s not what you wanted to hear, but it’s certainly what you needed to hear. Because I care, I do. Our mission here is to get businesses to rethink marketing. Not because we think we’re better than other marketing companies but because we see too much time and money being wasted on meaningless tactics.
Yes, just keep marketing, in good times and bad. But do it the right way. If everyone did this, no one would ever consider cutting marketing in downtime.
