Feature Article: Two Of The Biggest Marketing HurdlesKevin Recommends: More Biz Accelerator
Two of the biggest hurdles to putting effective marketing in place for your service business.
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Feature Article: Two Of The Biggest Marketing Hurdles - by Kevin DervinTwo of the Biggest Marketing Hurdles
I brainstormed many potential topics for this first ever edition of the Mraketing Wizard eZine. Over the course of the next many months, I look forward to bringing you the ideas I've come up with. My goal is to send you insights, motivation, and practical ideas that you can put to use in your business.
But where to start?
As I was preparing recently to give a presentation to the local chapter of the Home Business Connection (HBC), that idea finally came to me. So here it is - Two of the Biggest Hurdles to effective marketing. If we acknowledge these hurdles in our own business, we can PLAN and ACT on how to go over or around them.
So what are these hurdles? Well, they certainly aren't the only hurdles, but the two I keep running into time and again with many small businesses are Perfection and Fear of Failure. In fact, despite some unforseen technical issues, I'm sure they played a part in delaying the launch of my web site and this eZine.
Hurdling Perfection
Many of us tend to be perfectionist in the things we do. You might say... "When I put out this marketing piece, it really has to hit a home run." But because we know that perfection is really not attainable, it can be a big roadblock to effective marketing.
In our quest to make our marketing PERFECT, we may never even get a GOOD marketing program in place.
Perfectionism in creating a direct mailing piece or a web site or an electronic newsletter like this can result in significant delays of weeks, months, or even years.
The funny thing is, most of us verbally buy into the concept of "continuous improvement". But then we often get stuck trying to endlessly improve before we ever put the idea into action.
The pursuit of perfection in itself is not bad. But it can certainly result in great failure when we're unwilling to call an idea "good enough", put it out there, and then look for ways to improve it and put it out there again. Until it's perfect - or almost perfect.
If marketing has been a struggle for your business because you're not sure what works best or where to start, then you can't expect to be great at it overnight. It's going to take time. So be willing to start somewhere and learn from mistakes.
Notice the importance of the pursuit of perfection, or "continuous improvement". The opposite side of this hurdle is settling for "good enough".
Sometimes marketing is treated as a one time event and even though it's dull and only yielding mediocre results, it keeps getting put out there again and again without ever trying to make it better.
What would you expect to eventually happen to a business that operates this way?
Hurdling Fear of Failure
I believe the second hurdle - Fear of Failure is closely related to the first. For most of us, the notion of facing rejection or failure is unsettling at best.
And because this whole marketing thing can be an unnkown or uncomfortable for us, we sure do hesitate to put something out there and not have it be good. If it fails to produce results, we may feel like we're failing in our business.
Unfortunately, one of the most common approaches to avoiding failure is to avoid taking action in the first place. Or maybe just as unsuccessfully, we spend all our time looking for that magical marketing idea that is going to end all of our client acquisition problems. I call it the "Power Ball" marketing strategy.
Guess what? It's not out there - so you might as well quit looking.
Marketing will take time and effort on your part. But, with persistance and a willingness to potentially even make a mess of it with your first attempt, you can succeed! Be willing to learn from your mistakes and get better as you go.
Do you see why I think the two hurdles are closely related?
"I need perfection, and if it can't be perfect, I will have failed. And I just hate the thought of failure, so if it can't be perfect, I'm better off not even doing it."
If you love what you do and believe in the results you can produce for your customers, then you can experience great marketing success. Be willing to get some help if the "know how" is beyond your means.
*************************Maybe it's Perfection and Fear of Failure that is keeping you from great marketing success, but maybe it's more basic than that. For some businesses, it's not knowing what works best or how or where to market for success. If you're frustrated with marketing your business, check out
www.proven-small-buisness-marketing-solutions.com
to see what might be possible.
Kevin Recommends: More Biz AcceleratorI've hired a coach and wanted to share what I'm discovering with you.
I've become a huge believer in the value of this program to help me propel my own business forward. The owner and creator, Christian Mickelsen, asked me to give him a testimonial recently. Go check it out, it's pretty cool.
More Biz Accelerator
He also sends me an inspirational business quote everday through
Business Inspired!com
Finally, you'll also find a bunch of useful resources you can use to help you in your business at
Small Biz U.
If you're aware of any other great resources like these that others should know about, just send me a
message
and I'll pass them on.
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