Marketing Myth: It Worked for Someone Else, So It Will Work for Me Too

Bringing you another marketing mythbuster!

This myth lures you into thinking because a marketing strategy worked for this other company or this coach, that it will work for me, too!

Let me explain why that is not always (or even very often) the case.

There are many different factors that play into any company, any marketing campaign, any marketing strategy, and you have to understand all of those and how they impact your specific circumstances. What I see too often – and I’ve discussed this in the past – is that a lot of a lot of coaches (any discipline) have learned one specific strategy from another coach, and that’s what they turn around and teach to you. Therefore, in some cases, they only know one strategy, and maybe not how it can be customized to work for you.

What I’ve seen from decades of working in the marketing field, having been CMO at a large multi-billion dollar corporation, and having worked with some global brands that you would recognize; and most importantly working with thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses – is that no single marketing strategy is going to work for everyone.

• There are differences in business that can and should directly impact your marketing.
• There’s differences that can vary across industry type.
• There’s strategies that work better for B2B versus B2C companies – although I will remind you if you’re B2B you’re still working with people on the other end.
• There are differences that can come into play based upon your company’s size.
• Differences can revolve around your customer base, their demographics and what they’re looking for. For example, traditionally older or senior populations aren’t as big on emojis in a post, and they’re less likely to use some of the social media channels versus a younger crowd.
• Also your company can be a difference.

Let me give you a good example of company differentiation. One of the strategies that I see advertised periodically is for website designers to get away from doing traditional websites and do the “rent a website” concept.

This particular strategy goes against everything I preach relating to websites, and company marketing in general. I always say that you need to own your own website platform; these companies that “rent and rank” start a very generic website, and get it ranking for YOUR keywords using some basic SEO strategies but primarily paid advertising, and then they turn around and contact your business and tell them that they’ll send you the leads.

The problem with these sites, which I’ve discussed repeatedly, is that when you cancel your contract with that company for whatever reason, all that work that you’ve paid for now starts going to someone else, very likely a direct competitor. I know why the company selling (renting) the site is doing it – because it puts money in their pocket. That’s not the business practice I follow; I put money in YOUR pocket, but I do it in highly ethical ways – in ways that won’t damage your company after our contract ends.

If you don’t know where to start, then looking at another marketing campaign that someone else has done, or that a coach has done that has had success, can be a great place for you to start. But another problem we see people run into very often is that the system they want you to use won’t work with all the other systems your business may have in place. Then you end up doing double the work – which is highly inefficient, especially considering that it isn’t the work that drives revenue to your business.

If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re looking to double your non-revenue-generating work, raise your hand!

The best thing you can do is get some focused, strategic marketing advice that will work best for your company, based upon your industry, your customers, their demographics and their industry, B2B versus B2C, and of course your individual unique company – the things that are different about you. (The kind of advice that we provide!)

And if you’re going with any platform, any coach, or looking at another company’s marketing, and they only have one way to do it … it may be better than nothing when you start, but it’s not going to get you to your specific goals over the long term. In some cases, it may not even work for you right out of the gate because it may just be the wrong strategy for your company. A much better option is to use our 3 by 3 Marketing Matrix™ to focus on some strategies you can add to your marketing.

Have you ever encountered a marketing strategy that ended up causing you more work than before you implemented? One that caused you double the systems and processes?

#marketing #marketingstrategy #digitalmarketing #entrepreneur #business