Ask Lorraine

Lorraine’s Perspective

This is a question I think many business owners should ask before spending more money on marketing.

When marketing stops producing the results we expect, our first reaction is often to change the marketing. Try different advertising. Post more often on social media. Redesign the website. Send more emails. Spend more money.

But what if the marketing isn’t the real problem?

Before changing how you’re marketing your business, I would take another look at who you’re trying to reach and why those people would choose you today.

Your business changes over time. Your customers change. Your competitors change. And the marketplace certainly changes.

The customer who was ideal for your business five or ten years ago may not be the customer who represents your best opportunity today.

Start With Your Best Customers

Think about the customers you would genuinely like to have more of.

What do your best customers have in common?

What problem or need caused them to start looking for a business like yours?

Why did they choose you?

What was most important to them when they made that decision?

Those answers can tell you a great deal about where your future marketing should be focused.

Now take another look at your marketing from their point of view.

Does your website, advertising or social media quickly communicate something that matters to those customers?

Or does most of your marketing talk about your company, your services and what you do?

There is an important difference between telling someone:

“Here’s what our company does.”

and helping them recognize:

“This company understands the problem I’m trying to solve.”

The second gives the right prospective customer a reason to keep listening.

Three Questions I Would Ask Before Spending More on Marketing

1. Are you still targeting the customers you most want?

Don’t assume that because a particular market worked well in the past, it automatically represents your best opportunity today.

Look at where your best business is actually coming from now.

2. Are you talking about what matters to those customers?

Business owners naturally think about their products, services, experience and capabilities.

Customers usually begin somewhere else: with a problem, need, concern or goal.

Your marketing needs to connect those two things.

3. Are you giving people a clear reason to take the next step?

Getting someone’s attention isn’t the same as getting a response.

Once someone discovers your business, is it obvious what you want them to do next—and is there a good reason for them to do it?

Call? Schedule a consultation? Ask a question? Request information? Visit your business?

Don’t make the prospective customer figure it out.

Lorraine’s Bottom Line

If your marketing isn’t producing the response it once did, I wouldn’t automatically conclude that you need more marketing.

First, make sure you’re talking to the right people.

Then make sure you’re talking about the things that matter to them.

And finally, make sure you’re giving them a clear reason to take the next step.

Sometimes improving your marketing isn’t about becoming louder.

It’s about becoming clearer.

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