Why Are You Doing the Same Marketing and Expecting Different Results?
There is a well-known saying that doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is the definition of madness.
Whether or not you agree with the definition, there is a valuable lesson for small businesses. If your marketing isn’t producing the results you need, carrying on doing exactly the same thing and hoping things will improve probably isn’t the best strategy.
Yet this happens all the time.
So why do small business owners continue with marketing activities that aren’t delivering the results they want?
And, more importantly, what can you do differently?
Why does this happen?
There are several reasons.
It’s what you know
Most of us naturally stick with what we know. If you have always relied on networking, exhibitions, email marketing, referrals or a particular form of advertising, changing direction can feel like a risk.
There is also plenty of confirmation bias involved. You know other businesses that use the same approach successfully, so it is easy to assume that it should work for you too. The problem is that what works for one business doesn’t necessarily work for another. Your target market, proposition, competition, pricing, sales process and customer behaviour are all different.
Just because something works for someone else doesn’t mean it is the right marketing approach for you.
It used to work
This is particularly common in established businesses. Something worked five, ten or even twenty years ago, so why change it?
Because your market has changed.
Your customers have changed. Your competitors have changed. Technology has changed. The way people research and buy has changed. Think about the difference between the Yellow Pages and Google. For decades, being listed in the Yellow Pages could generate business. Today, most buyers will search online before they pick up a phone.
The same principle applies to almost every area of marketing.
Past success is not a guarantee of future performance.
One of the biggest dangers is when your existing marketing is doing “okay”. It generates a few enquiries and the occasional sale, so there doesn’t appear to be an urgent reason to change. But “okay” isn’t necessarily good enough. If you could generate twice as many enquiries, better-quality leads or more sales from the same investment, wouldn’t you want to know?
You don’t think you have the budget
There is a common perception that trying something new means spending a lot of money. It doesn’t have to. Some of the most valuable changes you can make to your marketing cost very little. Improving your messaging, focusing on a better-defined target market, following up leads more effectively or measuring your results properly can have a significant impact without requiring a huge budget.
The bigger issue is often not the amount of money available. It is where that money is being spent.
If you are spending money on marketing that isn’t working, continuing to spend it there is far more expensive than trying something different.
You don’t have the time
This is probably the most common reason of all.
You are busy running the business. Clients need work completed. Staff need managing. Suppliers need dealing with. Problems need solving. Marketing gets pushed down the list because there is always something more urgent.
But there is an important distinction between working in your business and working on your business.
If you never make time to review your marketing, improve your processes or develop new skills, you can end up spending years doing things simply because that is how you have always done them.
Being busy isn’t necessarily the same as being productive. Sometimes you need to step away from the day-to-day to work out how to make the business work better.
So, what can you do differently?
The answer isn’t necessarily to throw everything away and start again. Instead, take a step back and work out what is actually happening.
1. Measure what is actually happening
If you don’t know what your marketing is producing, how can you decide whether it is working? You should be able to answer some basic questions.
- Which marketing activities generate enquiries?
- Which generate the best-quality leads?
- Which generate sales?
- How much does each lead cost?
- How many leads turn into customers?
- And ultimately, what return are you getting from your marketing investment?
You don’t need an elaborate marketing dashboard to start answering these questions. You just need to start measuring. Once you have the numbers, you can make decisions based on evidence rather than assumptions.
2. Find out where things are going wrong
It is easy to say, “Our marketing isn’t working.”, but is that actually the problem?
- Perhaps your marketing is generating plenty of enquiries, but Sales isn’t converting them.
- Perhaps you are generating lots of leads, but they are the wrong type of customer.
- Perhaps your website is getting plenty of visitors, but nobody is contacting you.
- Perhaps your message isn’t compelling enough to make people take the next step.
Before changing your marketing, identify where the problem actually sits. There is little point in generating more leads if you already have enough leads and the problem is converting them into customers.
3. Invest in yourself and your team
You don’t necessarily need to employ a marketing expert or spend thousands on training, but you do need to keep learning. Marketing changes constantly. New channels appear, customer behaviour changes and the tools available to small businesses continue to develop.
Set aside time to learn.
That might mean attending a workshop, reading, taking an online course, talking to other business owners or simply spending a few hours understanding what has changed in your market.
The time you invest today could save you considerably more time and money tomorrow.
4. Stop doing what isn’t working
This sounds obvious, but it can be surprisingly difficult. Once you have identified a marketing activity that isn’t producing results, ask yourself why.
- Is it the wrong channel?
- Are you targeting the wrong people?
- Is your message wrong?
- Are you using the channel incorrectly?
- Or is it simply not being given enough time to work?
If the evidence tells you that something isn’t working, don’t keep doing it simply because you have always done it.
Stop.
Then use the time and money you were spending on it to test something else.
And here is the important part.
If the new approach doesn’t work either, you haven’t necessarily lost anything. You have learned that two approaches don’t work. That is progress.
Marketing isn’t about getting every decision right first time. It is about testing, measuring, learning and improving.
5. Get some advice
You don’t have to work everything out yourself. Sometimes the easiest way to make progress is to talk to someone who can look at your business from the outside. An experienced marketing adviser can often spot things that are difficult to see when you are immersed in the business every day.
They can challenge your assumptions, identify where things are going wrong and suggest alternatives. It doesn’t have to mean handing your entire marketing over to an agency. Sometimes you simply need an independent perspective.
If you were lost while driving, you wouldn’t keep going around the same roundabout hoping you would eventually find your destination. You would look at the map.
Marketing is no different.
If you’re not sure where you are going, get some help finding the right route.
6. Talk to your network
You probably already know people who have faced similar marketing challenges. Ask them what works for them. More importantly, ask them what **doesn’t** work. You may discover that someone in your network tried the same approach you are considering and abandoned it for a very good reason. You don’t have to copy what other businesses do, but you can learn from their experience.
There is one other option
Of course, there is always another option. You can carry on doing exactly what you are doing. You can continue spending time and money on marketing because it is familiar. You can continue hoping that things will improve. And you might get lucky.
But if your current marketing isn’t producing the results you need, why would you expect the outcome to suddenly change?
The most successful small businesses aren’t necessarily the ones that get everything right. They are often the ones that recognise when something isn’t working and are prepared to do something about it.
Don’t keep doing the same thing simply because it is what you have always done.
- Measure it.
- Understand it.
- Challenge it.
- Change it.
And see what happens.
If you would like an independent view of your marketing, SME Needs can help.
We offer a straightforward marketing consultation where you can talk through what you are currently doing, what is working, what isn’t and where you could improve.
Book a marketing consultation and let’s see what we can do differently.
“We don’t need to do any marketing. We get all our work through word of mouth!”
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