Marketing is one of those business activities most prone to our being impatient. We want results immediately, and for every single marketing activity we take. It’s easy for us to get into a funk when some marketing action we’ve taken hasn’t brought any new business. It’s even easier to get totally discouraged when multiple marketing efforts appear to be fruitless. Unfortunately, marketing requires endless patience, trials, successes, and failures. For most business owners selling their services, marketing is a long series of experimentations that seem to pay off only occasionally and unpredictably. Let’s look at some of the facts about marketing that can help you be patient with your efforts.
1. You must accept the fact that marketing is a long-term project the requires commitment of time and effort.
We all want instant results, but marketing simply does not work that way. Depending on your type of business and the services you offer, prospects must have a certain level of familiarity with you and your business before you are likely to get new clients. Your target market must be exposed to your business repeatedly over time, so that they recognize you and your business. It takes time for them to receive repeated impressions of your marketing message. They need to feel like they know and understand what you do before they will start to get curious or inquire about your services.
2. When it comes to marketing, you cannot “push the river”.
In the same way that pushing the river is not going to change anything, being impatient about marketing results will not bring you results any faster. If anything, your impatience will telegraph “desperation” to your target market and make them feel leery of you. Understanding that marketing will take as long as it takes is your first step to better results. It’s paradoxical that you must practice patience when your insides are screaming, “Hurry up results!” However, a certain amount of acceptance of reality is a must in marketing.
3. Put together a marketing plan, relax, and stay consistent in your marketing activities.
The biggest marketing mistake most businesses make is to market inconsistently and randomly. Don’t “try” something only once and quickly give up on it, and move on to “trying” the next idea. Put together a marketing plan of cohesive and logical activities suited to your business. Relax into executing this plan predictably. Breathe consciously to keep yourself relaxed and confident. Stick to your plan, even when you have setbacks and obstacles. Keep executing.
4. Don’t expect to have instant results.
Give up on the unrealistic notion that you will get instant results from your marketing. This does occur occasionally, but it’s unpredictable. It’s better to build a “pipeline” of new business by showing up where you can find your target market, developing relationships with them, and becoming a “regular” in settings where your target prospects congregate. Don’t settle for occasional, “instant” and unpredictable marketing successes. Build the mechanisms to create a consistent stream of new business. That takes time.
5. Keep reminding yourself that your objective is a thriving business.
It’s easy to lose sight of our business objectives when we’re disappointed in marketing. Most of us can feel disheartened during our marketing efforts and forget why we’re doing all this work. If it seems like the marketing is not working (because you’re expecting too much too fast), step back and remember what you want as an end result. You want your business to thrive with new clients and ever-increasing revenue. That is what will make all the work worth your effort. Without marketing, your target market will not find you and choose to purchase your services.
It’s a marketing axiom that marketing requires patience. It takes some time to get results from your marketing efforts, and the more you develop patience, the better your results will be. There’s no way to rush the marketing process. Have patience with the process and the time it takes to get predictable results.
Suzi Elton provides business writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site.