Like tennis, the smallest decision can make the biggest impact and those decisions are key to creating and sustaining a thriving business model.
Typically when you hear “It’s a game of inches” it’s a reference to football. But I’m a tennis player, so we’re going to switch the analogy up a bit. I love the game for both its strategy and its athleticism. But playing for enjoyment and playing competitively are two very different animals. For me, the thrill of winning or losing a game on my racket is right up my alley. My problem is that I love power. I’m not the type of player who is content just getting the ball back over the net, keeping the ball in play, or staying consistent until my opponent makes an error. I don’t have a finesse game. I’m the flashy, go for broke, the more winners the better kind of player. There’s one big problem with this. I don’t have the skill set to play this way.
In business, as in tennis, the smallest decision can change everything. Your brand promise, dictates what your customers can expect from your company but how you execute that promise is something else entirely. Let’s say, for example, you have a small commercial cleaning company. Your clients are other businesses. How do you go about gaining new clients? How do you get the word out about your service? You have more than a few options to achieve this goal. But you need to ask yourself a few questions first:
- What is your end goal? Is it brand awareness? Gaining new clients? Creating more leads or building strategic alliances?
- Who is your target market? Who are you going after? What are their habits? How do you reach them?
- What is your metric for success? How many new clients, new followers, new leads? How are you measuring this success? If you add 500 new followers to your Facebook page, is that considered a successful campaign?
- What methods will you use to achieve those goals? Social media, direct mail, cold calling, content marketing amongst many others are valid vehicles but every target market is different. Where do you need to be?
- Who will be executing these campaigns? Do you have an in-house staff or do you need to outsource? And no, ‘Doing it myself’ is not an option.
- How much are you allocating to the effort? Marketing requires money. If you are not willing to allocate dollars to your business, you are not truly interested in growing that business.
Once these questions are asked and answered, before you embark on this new path, you have another immediate concern. Do you have systems in place to achieve sustained business growth? I recently had a call with a potential client about redesigning their website and creating a lead generation funnel for their business. As a real estate firm, lead generation is a large part of the marketing piece of the puzzle so we spent quite a bit of time discussing the various options. But when we came to the process of implementation, it became apparent that there were no systems in place to guarantee that the leads generated would actually be used.
Bringing in new business is necessary to maintain a thriving company. But if your company drives new customers away before they have a chance to know and love you, you’re wasting your money. Marketing is not the answer to every problem.
Start with an audit of your current suite of services. Spend some time in the customer’s shoes. See what they see. Experience what they experience. Only then can you effectively build a company that creates an army of Brand Ambassadors and loyal customers.
If you need help assessing your current marketing techniques and brand promise, we can help..
We Can Help
3D Studios helps businesses grow their influence and their brands. As a boutique brand management agency, we begin with a thorough analysis of your needs and partner with you to develop and execute a marketing plan that will help you take your business to the next level. To learn more about how 3D Studios can help you, visit us at www.3Dstudios.net or call 914-304-4229.
