Patience, Grasshopper….

by Josh Amidon

Every client or potential client wants great marketing results overnight, the magic answer, the secret. Here’s the problem – I never got my invitation to Hogwarts as a kid and thus, don’t have a magic wand (it would be cool if I did though, I’d make cheesecake and wine have zero calories). And it’s not just me, every other marketer’s invitation must have gotten lost in the mail too because there is no secret, nor quick fix. I assume you intend to be in business for the long haul, so plan on taking the right steps, in an appropriate order, to get marketing results for that long haul. Do that and you will look up at the end of the year and find you’ve actually built a solid marketing foundation.

Don’t just attempt to throw money and resources at your marketing to get a faster result. It’s a little like a growing baby. You can’t take nine women and have a baby in a month. It’s a logical progression with one step after the other. Patience, grasshopper. Marketing correctly will take time, but it will work.

When you plan your marketing activities using a calendar, your focus tends to be on the long term goal, the due date if you will, rather than on the overwhelming realization that you have lots to do.

Pick a major marketing activity each month for the rest of the year and make that your primary marketing theme for that month. Assign weekly tasks and hold weekly meetings to move the tasks forward. Create your marketing strategy this month, your educational content next and your revamped website the month after that.

I know it’s not sexy but the slow and steady something will always beat the fast and flashy nothing when it comes to the long term health of your business.

In the meantime, if anyone has a magic wand I could borrow that would be great, I’d love to go back in time and not compare a marketing strategy to a human’s gestation period.