For many people 2013 was a disappointing, slow year for their business and the reality is 2014 will be the same unless you do something different. Over the last few weeks many of us have made and broken New Year resolutions, made plans and thought hard about 2014. Most of these are already dead and buried.
The fact is it's quite hard to stay on task focused given the number of distractions and interruptions most of us face.
In 2014 your business is going to change, whether you want it or not change is coming.
From 2008 it was the economy and before that it was the rapid expansion of the internet and now there loads of other pressures coming.
It's damn competitive, finance is hard to get hold of, your customers have ADHD, Google has ADHD. Specialists are everywhere. Social media experts, seo experts all supported by the Pay Per Click gurus, oh and then there are the website designers.
I have been working hard as a ‘shit doctor’ sorting out the shit caused by all of these self titled experts, dealing with the poor business owners who are promised an out of the box solution based on this or that. It’s all complete rubbish – spending £5k on an e-commerce solution along with a contract for website hosting at £200 per month will deliver nothing for your business unless you have a plan to do business online.
Paying a for traffic via Pay Per Click on Google Adwords or Facebook marketing, without a bigger plan and supporting process will not deliver. Of course most of the experts won’t tell you that it’s the process that delivers the leads not the advertising.
Then there is the Social Media experts selling you a ‘Facebook and Twitter’ strategy, and not to worry they will sort all of your content and tweeting – of course that will work for you!
First point being no one buys from the either of those mediums, and you will soon be found out to be a fraud once your followers realise it’s not you who is Tweeting. It’s a bit like making an appointment to see your Oncologist only to find out that the person sitting in the room is the cleaner from the local supermarket. Not really a way to engage with your potential customers.
I am not not negative about all of these methods of promoting a business but please be aware that without a thought out plan – even a bad one you may as well sit in your garden and burn fivers to keep warm.
Much small business marketing is a knee jerk reaction to the phone that stops ringing – and it’s this blind panic that the gurus rely on.
My work revolves around a rock solid 7 point plan that guarantees results, it also involves all of the above but only as part of a bigger plan. It’s the plan that helps me provide the guarantee.
Of course not everyone likes what I have to say, and in all honesty I don’t care. I sleep at night and so do my clients, it’s also this honesty that has allowed me to continue since 2001.
Enough said.