01 Feb Web Marketing – Train to Win
Early morning runner, near Douro river in Portugal (Black and White)
Marketing is a lot like training for a big race. All those hours getting up early and running, particularly when you don’t want to, in an effort to improve your stamina, strength and speed.
In working to better present your organization as the best choice, we do a lot of things that are, truly and simply, work. Research, Design, Copywriting, Finding Leads, Preparing Presentations, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media: all of these things are your marketing work; Training.
Training is about dedication and persistence. The results come from determined, consistent effort. The same can be said for marketing, particularly in the age of Google and Bing.
The day to race, the day to shine, that day is the sales call (Or it is the day the customer walks in your store or wherever else in the sales process your people lay out the money). You have done all the preparation you can do and now you have to face whether you are ready or not. If you haven’t prepared as hard or as well as your competition, the other guy wins the race. You can have all the good intentions in the world but if you haven’t trained for a big hill climb, you will fall back. If you don’t have solid, professional materials, you aren’t competing.
Step back and take a look at your purchase patterns. Of the last 3 things you have purchased, whether a soda, a computer, a car or an accountant’s services, what were the ways you evaluated that purchase? If we’re talking soda and it was a CocaCola or Pepsi (or part of their vast portfolio), I know I don’t need to tell you that we’ve been swayed by marketing to buy the blue can or red can. Do you buy a PC or a Mac? Why? No, really why? Are you Ford Tough, Chevy: Like a Rock or a believer in BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine? Did you pick this new accountant based on his track record, a referral and his . . .
. . . website and marketing materials?
Doing the hard work now gives you the opportunity to get paid for doing business later.
As the adage goes: Failing to plan is planning to fail.