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November 08, 2007 | Written By Mason Hipp
This post is about a simple concept. It’s the number one reason that marketing campaigns succeed, and the number one reason they fail.
(Hint: it has nothing to do with goldfish)
How many times have you seen an incompetent person running a very successful business? I bet you could think of a dozen ways to improve their business, but their business is strong anyway because they take action.
All the ideas in the world won’t bring in a single customer if they aren’t acted upon.
At SmallFuel, we’ve run in to dozens of businesses whose marketing wasn’t working simply because they weren’t doing it. Most small business owners have lots of great ideas, but problems invariably arise with execution.
A marketing campaign is guaranteed to fail if it never starts.
There are many reasons not to act: potential for failure, embarrassment, fear, perfectionism, lack of time, lack of direction.
There are two good reasons to take action now—you will learn from it, and you will grow your business. Make action your number one priority.
P.S. Wondering where the solution is? Next Monday I’ll be posting lots of impressively good resources that help you take action. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it : )
Mason, I love it! I really never thought of it that way. People come to a firm for help… Small Fuel, IttyBiz, whatever. They pay good money for ideas. Three months later, their sales aren’t up. Why?
Oh yeah! They didn’t actually take the advice! Great piece - perfect.
Hey Naomi,
It’s not even just advice from marketing firms either—a lot of small businesses really wouldn’t need a marketing firm if it weren’t for the execution.
And a lot of marketing firms would be doing much better if only they could help businesses take the actions they recommend.
Thanks for stopping by,
- Mason
I 100% agree with this! Unfortunately, my company has lacked in understanding the neccessity of a marketing plan and therefore allocating resources for it. I love running across things like this to strengthen my point of view. Thanks!
Jenn
I believe in the ‘taking action’ part. In fact, my business ran without any marketing campaigns, but as soon as I joined the bandwagon in internet faxing the results were pretty impressive.
I couldn’t agree more with you; I’ve just dugg that; it’s an excellent article :)
Taking action is very important, it’s the key first stage :)
The whole marketing thing though; how many companies can afford a proper marketing scheme; it seems that is a large reason why some do not even begin…
Good marketing thinks alike or at least similar. When I read the title and saw the goldfish picture I thought of either taking the initiative or being unique from the crowd. Getting out there first makes a difference, however while you are out there being different, in a good way, helps you to stand out and full uses your marketing skills. I think it is great to go go go, but if you are just throwing at me the same ole flyers everyone else is, but first, I do not know if that will make a big difference in who I choose when shopping for a company. However, you throw a creative, interesting and eye catching flyer at me, even if it is second, I can see me more drawn.
The main criteria that I would like to mention is that Marketing in a full house scale is possible only if one is dedicated towards ones work. One must be responsible enough to take the work loads. He/she should deal with advertising giants, in print media as well as public media to gain maximum popularity.
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