Is your business suffering from Marketing Attention Deficit Disorder?

If your business is suffering from MADD chances are you’re all over the map when it comes to your approach to marketing. Similar to Attention Deficit Disorder, you may find yourself jumping from one strategy to the next. You place a single ad in the newspaper and expect a flood of calls. But no one calls. You try direct mail and send one round of post-cards to thousands of homes but don’t get one bite. You post flyers in your neighborhood which generates a few calls but not the droves of people you were expecting. You keep searching for the magic marketing combination and keep shifting from one thing to another.

This is what I call marketing attention deficit disorder or MADD. Flying from one campaign to the next in a scattered and unfocused attempt at trying everything you can to attract more business. The downfall to this approach is that you never really give your campaigns an opportunity to take root because you move too quickly. You expect that one a time effort will yield a flood of interest but marketing doesn’t work that way.  You can’t expect to see results overnight. It takes time and consistency before your marketing starts to pay off.

Here are four tips to avoid marketing attention deficit disorder.

1) Define what you want to achieve with your marketing.
2) Create a plan on how you intend to achieve those objectives.
3) Set the plan in motion.
4) Be consistent with your efforts.

Define your marketing objectives

Is your objective to attract more clients, increase your business exposure or highlight a new program? If, for example you would like to attract more clients, then outline the specifics of that goal by answering the following questions;

1) What type of clients am I looking to attract?
2) How many clients do I need?
3) How many hours am I looking to fill in my schedule?
4) How much additional revenue do I need to bring in?

Here’s how you may answer these questions.

1) I’m looking for athletic women looking to push their fitness to the next level.
2) I need to attract five additional clients.
3) I have ten hours available in my schedule to train.
4) I would like to earn an additional $1500 a month in revenues.

By answering these questions you begin to understand exactly what you are looking to achieve with your marketing. It will be easier to create a plan based on these defined needs.

Before diving into creating the plan answer a few more questions about your target market.

1) Who are these women?
2) Where do they shop?
3) What do they read?
4) What concerns or issues do they have?
5) What do they do for a living?
6) What sports might they be involved in?

These questions are intended for you to probe deeper into the type of clients you wish to attract to your business and through your marketing. The answers will serve to create a profile of the kind of clients you are looking for. This will make marketing easier because once you understand who it is you are looking to attract you can place your marketing directly in their path. Below is an example of a mock profile of a client.

Athletic women who like to run, bike, hike, swim and are active most days of the week. They spend their time doing more cardio then weight training but have thought about doing something in the gym. They are social and enjoy the company of other women. They are health conscience and shop at high-end grocery stores. They read the paper but also read sport specific magazines. They are getting a bit older and are concerned about maintaining their fitness, their shape, remaining injury and disease free. They may have children be married or are single moms. They have a certain measure of disposal income and are willing to try new activities so long as they are enjoying themselves and seeing results.

Create a plan

With your marketing objectives clearly defined and the profile of your customer complete you can work towards creating your marketing plan. First, list all the options available for these women to get involved in your business. They may include;

a) Private personal training
b) Small group personal training
c) Large group personal training

Then decide where you are going to communicate your offerings and how. Review the sample of a marketing calendar which will outlines how to organize your plan.

This sample marketing calendar provides a framework for you to focus your efforts. Each month there are different marketing campaigns all aimed at getting your message out about your services to your profiled target market. This method of marketing makes it simpler for you to concentrate your efforts on a much smaller group of people. No more marketing attention disorder because you don’t have to bounce from one thing to the next. Each activity is geared towards driving clients to your business through a direct system of marketing.

Set the plan in motion and be consistent with your efforts

The exercise of building a marketing calendar assists you in setting the plan in motion. It provides the structure from which you can work from and takes the guesswork out of what you are attempting to do next. More importantly it’s a reminder that you need to be constantly working on your marketing. Even if you have a solid base or referrals and business is booming, you still need to continue to work on your marketing. Referrals can dry up quickly and the loss of a few clients can put your business into a tail spin.

Lastly, keep in mind that it’s the small things you do on a daily basis that make the biggest difference to your business in the long run. The fruits of your labor will pay-off but only if you remain consistent in your marketing efforts. Follow the plan and have faith that it will work.

To receive a blank marketing calendar email me at edgefit@shaw.ca and put in the subject line “blank marketing calendar”.