Does Marketing Still Work?
The old rules of marketing are absolutely dead.
Recently I have been mentoring a company that has had a very common problem I keep seeing and you might be experiencing.
They have and had invested more than enough in their business.
- Their website.
- The campaigns.
- Their social media.
- Their desired results.
Sadly - They had no sales on well over a year.
I wasn’t surprised because over the past few years I am seeing a really strong repeated pattern and it is this.
- Build a website.
- Start a simple Adwords campaign
- Hire a social media company to handle that side of things.
- Invest in SEO.
- With no or almost no results.
Why is this?
First, the days of the website being the only source for your sales are dead. Multiple channels need to be in place to create maximum output for your business. This includes offline.
Second ask yourself this - when is the last time your clicked on a sponsored ad in relation to a organic ad? Personally I am not sure why but I don’t click on sponsored ads and lets face it - battling for decent space on Adwords is a pitch to say the least!
Third likes and shares DO NOT MEAN sales. When social media is done properly it can work yet seeing social media done authentically and organically is so rare but will only work when done this way. Simply posting content and links is a recipe for fail and the numbers support that!
SEO is a science yet so unscientific it just isn’t true. Two weeks ago I accidentally put a clients page to position 5 on Google for hugely sought after key phrase.
How?
That’s the problem … We do the basic things on SEO and no more. No endless backlinks etc yet is still appeared on page 1. position 5. In other words SEO described as a science can be a lot of trial and error that can take literally years.
And the bigger problem for you is this.
Do you have years to hope that results will drip in?
So why is this happening and why is it on the increase?
When I started my marketing adventures in 1989 reaching customers was easy when you knew how.
In the late 90s when digital arrived - before Google it was still pretty easy to dominate Yahoo and AltaVista and then later Google.
When Social Media really started to take off mid—late 2000s again it was easy to do organically as it was new and novelty.
The bigger problem though for you is this.
There is a new wave of experts that have no expertise in marketing or understanding real marketing.
Marketing itself is just a label to capture an action.
Marketing is actually as simple as this.
Selling your stuff to people that are ready to buy.
That’s really it.
You cannot persuade anyone to buy anything they don’t want and if you do you can guarantee they’ll be bringing it back under the table ‘buyers remorse’ or what I call the wake up moment that they were persuaded to buy something they just didn’t need.
And there is this.
It is 2017 - everything has changed.
- The custom life has arrived.
- Trust is a buyers issue.
- Referral and ratings are King.
- The artisan is back.
- No believes you is set to default.
- There is more.
Differences are dead.
Distinct is perceptive, perceptive is intuitive intuitive is another dimension that has been created through the new share experience.
In other words.
If you are no longer getting the results you want, need, and demand you need to rethink everything.
Yes direct marketing will still work but only in a 2017 transformed way.
Old persuasive marketing for your business is dead and if you have read this far - you get it.
So what do you do to make changes?
Here is how I change my own clients results and some simple things you can do.
First is stop everything. There is no point investing time, money, and people hours into what isn’t working.
Next research the buyers mind. This takes time and energy but is worth every moment.
Then look at trends, buying patterns and habits.
Find out the path taken from your customer until the moment they buy from you. That means from the second they discover you until the second the click the order button.
Then find out where the buyers are online or offline and get your product or service in front of them.
Create test campaigns to measure and track conversions.
Once the testing is over create a careful strategy and tactics to relaunch your campaigns.
And never ever forget…
Every right or wrong word makes a difference.
Every right or wrong image makes a difference.
Look at this…
REAL TEST RESULTS.
Headline 1. 3 sales
Headline 2. 73-sales
Image 1. 4 clicks
Image 2. 200 plus clicks
TEST EVERYTHING.
Now …
This takes time and energy and one problem you might face is lazy marketers that want to do what they know and that is usually the quick, click and go route that so many SEO and S.M experts take. I have news for you - that is proven to fail as you are probably experiencing right now.
If you want your business to work.
If you take your results serious.
If you need up-to-the-minute advice - what works in 2017.
If you need an expert that will tell you exactly how it is.
If you are in business for the long run.
And listen to this.
If you like the idea of everything being tested until it works and then appearing in the biggest and best national newspapers and magazines online for pennies … we should speak.
As I type most of our clients brands are appearing in most supported major online outlets that experience millions of visitors daily.
That above is powerful - that is significant and that is what is also delivering real results.
Now …
I only work with clients that want results and that take their businesse seriously.
Is that you?
If you have no need to create new informed marketing that actually cuts out the crap and delivers results please delete this email.
If you want more buyers, more sales and more results you know where I am.
By the way everything I am writing about above took one failed online project from 2.5 years of nothing and struggle (being supported by his other business) to sales of over £300,000 every month.
We didn’t do that doing what everyone else is doing.
Lets talk.