Marketing Commitment

[Jerry Smith]

How long should you commit to a certain marketing tactic? Perfectly reasonable question, especially if the tool in question has a high cost associated with it! However it is also hazardous as an approach unless you tread with caution.

Why?

1. Commitment needs to be general, as well as specific - in other words you need to have a big picture commitment to your marketing success and how that plays into your overall business (and indeed your life) plan. This will underpin everything that you do and needs to be there.
2. Specific commitment to a task needs to be in that context - picking marketing tools and tactics is actually easy at a superficial level. There is a reason that we don't cover this on the Get More Great Clients program until the last quarter of the course and it's this: it is easy to pick an inappropriate tactic when you haven't planned adequately. There are thousands of tools out there - choosing is the challenge.
3. Committing to the tactic itself can blinker your thinking. When you pick a marketing approach and start to implement it, measure the results in the overall context of your plan. Beware getting involved in it because it is fun, or staying with an ineffective tactic because you have already spent money on it. This is where commitment can be mis-placed. You are not using a tactic simply for its own sake - there is a much bigger picture
4. Use timeframes with care! Marketing is an ongoing commitment. That doesn't mean you shouldn't set a limit on the tactics you use, but nor does it mean blindly following a course for a specific duration, regardless of the results being achieved. Take time to review with your partners, service providers etc. how long to run a particular tactic and the likely cost before you embark on it, but make the higher commitment to continually review progress and adjust accordingly.

Commitment doesn't mean there isn't room for change and adjustment. On the contrary. However it is essential you have a sound base for all your marketing activities. In that way you will quickly know how things are going and be in a far better position to decide to a) keep going as you are, b) make some adjustments or c) stop doing the activity entirely.

That is a far sounder base than trying something because you like the sound of it, or saying to yourself: "I'll give this a try". That is far more like throwing darts than really having a marketing strategy to which you are committed.