Business people, especially the “left-brain” types like lawyers or accountants, often want their marketing to follow a certain set of rules. They want to know that if they invest X amount of dollars, they will get X amount of sales. They want to know how long it will take to receive a particular result. They want to know exactly how everyone will react.
I understand, really. Guess what? It doesn’t change the fact that that’s not how it works. It never has and it never will.
In all aspects of businesses, you deal with a number of variables. When it comes to marketing though, you deal with just as many variables, but then throw all of the variables from your consumers’ mind into the equation as well. The end result falls just short of absolute chaos. No one can truthfully tell you that they know 100% for sure exactly how many sales your new marketing campaign will generate. No one can truthfully tell you that they know 100% for sure exactly when the majority of prospects will become you new clients as a result of your marketing campaign. In all honesty, no one can truthfully tell you that they know 100% for sure, anything about your marketing campaign except the cost. Sure, they can point to statistics and case studies. They can show you testimonials from satisfied clients. Things don’t always follow these patterns though, and if you’re serious about running your business, you need to know that.
Marketing is a lot like some of the other “soft” skills, like leadership or negotiating. You may be a great negotiator, but if the guy on the other side of the table had a fight with his wife before leaving the house, got a phone call from the doctor on the way to work and learned he had cancer, and then was told that he was passed over for promotion when he got into the office, do you think you’re going to make much progress with him today?
You may have the best marketing campaign in the world, but the time may not be right for it, or you may be reaching out to the wrong target market, or peoples? opinions may change over time. Red Bull started off marketing to an extremely small niche by targeting young ravers in the night club scene, but later realized that there was tremendous untapped market in truck drivers who needed to stay awake while driving. By all accounts, this horrible tasting energy drink should have only appealed to a younger crowd, but in the real world, it had a much broader appeal.
The point here is to understand that your marketing will never follow a precise pattern, no matter how analytical or predictable you or your prospects are. You’re going to have to roll with the punches and adjust your marketing continually to get the most from your budget. Sometimes, what seems like it should work doesn’t. Sometimes, what sounds like it would never work does. This is the nature of the beast, and if you can accept and adapt to it, your business will be far more successful.
