We see it all the time. Businesses who bring us in and ask us to give them a marketing quick fix – a slight website facelift, some basic social media training, a piece of collateral – and think that it’s enough. And friends, I’m here to tell you, it’s not enough.

Although we are happy to collaborate with well-positioned partners on specific marketing initiatives, a marketing quick fix in lieu of a full marketing investment is ill advised. Spending time and dollars on a marketing band-aid is often a waste, when you haven’t done the work to flush out your brand or your audience.

There is no marketing quick fix. Good marketing is thoughtful, mindful, and multi-layered.

Good Marketing Begins With Branding

Everything begins and ends with the brand. Taking the time to identify your brand’s specific positioning and personality is essential. Your business must live and breathe your brand – without it you are dead in the water.

Know How You Fit in Your Market

Identifying your market and where you fit within the landscape is key. Knowing your competitors and their strengths enables you to differentiate yourself in your space.

Get to Know Your Audience

Understanding what motivates your audience is at the heart of any successful marketing program. Identifying your audience allows you to determine how and where to reach them.

Fine Tune Your Messaging

You’ve done all your homework, now you must use that knowledge to develop messaging that befits your brand, positions you well in your market, and resonates with your audience. Put that message front and center.

Track Your Results

A good marketing program should be monitored along the way to ensure you are getting the results you anticipated. If not, make mid-stream adjustments.

There are no quick fixes, friends. Marketing is important, and it’s a process. Do the work, and you will reap the rewards! If you’re not sure where to start, we can help!

Spring is a beautiful time of year to sit on the porch and watch flowers bloom and the green grass grow. While April showers bring May flowers (unless you’re in Texas, of course!), as spring turns towards summer, we must evaluate and adjust our strategies to keep our flowers blooming, our grass green and growing. We START watering. We STOP the weeds from spreading. We CONTINUE fertilizing.

This start, stop, continue approach can help you rock your 2018 marketing goals, too. As we near mid-year, there is still time to impact 2018 results. It is a great time to evaluate how your marketing plan is blooming. For your goals to flourish, you may need to STOP less successful strategies. You may need to START new strategies to sprout growth. CONTINUE the strategies that are thriving and helping you grow your “green” (revenue!).

Here are some tips for evaluating your marketing progress and pruning your strategies to meet your goals by the end of the year:

1. Get the lay of the land

Review your 2018 marketing plan. In the hopes of boosting activity (and ultimately revenue), were you going to start a blog or a newsletter, send email campaigns, try paid social media posts, or launch a referral program?

2. Water the roots

Review your internal business development process. How well is your team growing prospective clients to revenue-sprouting clients? How are you distinguishing yourself from the competition?

3. Plant seeds online

Review your website. Is your content up-to-date, optimized for mobile devices and appealing to prospects? This is a good time to add new content based on 2018 experiences to date. Adding success stories or client testimonials can sprout new opportunities and potential relationships.

4. Cultivate relationships

Review vendor agreements. If you are using third party sources to help you with certain aspects of your business (SEO or lead generation, for example) is it proving fruitful? Are the results, activities, reports and general communications meeting your expectations?

5. Grow your green

Review your financials. Are the marketing strategies you are using ultimately sprouting a growth in revenue?

6. Prune when necessary

Review what needs to START, STOP or CONTINUE. Asking the following questions will help you to determine which strategies are working and which strategies need to be pruned:

• What areas for improvement have sprouted and can be addressed proactively throughout the remainder of the year?
• Where have things failed to flourish or failed to deliver the results anticipated?
• What is thriving and performing at or above expectations?

START – Plant new seeds to realize your 2018 marketing goals.
STOP – Pull the weeds and stop unfruitful marketing activities.
CONTINUE – Grow and/or maintain the portions of your marketing plan which are thriving.