Billionaire Bill Gates summed it up. “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking that they cannot lose.”
It’s a piece of wisdom that should encourage business owners to look at what they are doing, evaluate their results and learn from any failures. One of the ways to do this is with leverage – doing more with less. Work on achieving an increase in profits, revenue and customers with resources you already have.
ActionCOACH Director of Marketing, Jodie Shaw, suggests your current marketing program is a good place to start.
“Marketing is an essential investment in your business, so it should produce positive returns,” she said. “If it does, invest more. If it doesn’t, change your approach.”
You don’t need a whizz-bang campaign that breaks the bank.
As super-successful investor Warren Buffet said, “You don’t need to have extraordinary efforts to achieve extraordinary results. You just need to do the ordinary, everyday things exceptionally well.”
It is essential to test how well your campaign works. In the same way as you evaluate production, you should measure the effectiveness of the money and time you have invested in advertising, networking, public relations and other ongoing marketing activities. These measurements become the yardstick for your next campaign. Sometimes, even small adjustments make a big difference, so ongoing, dedicated assessment is essential.
Shaw suggested that when you need ideas, look at what your opposition is doing.
“Compile a database and use it consistently and creatively,”
Business Coaches from ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching firm, help business owners integrate marketing into every business plan.
“If a marketing campaign is an investment, so is a Business Coach – and you should look for a return on that investment,”
It seems that an increasing number of small-to-medium sized businesses are following Shaw’s advice. She says business coaching is a rapid growth industry, with ActionCOACH leading the category.
