Most small business marketing is impulse. There is little thought or process put into place other than, “We have a random idea. Let’s execute it!”
But, most small businesses work 5X harder than they need to in order to promote their business. They build random campaigns that work for the here and now; with no thought for the long term position of their company. This is where most small businesses waste valuable resources and budget in order to receive a short term gain.
Building Marketing Assets
The key to consistent growth with maximum ROI is to build assets and not just campaigns. Assets can range from blog posts to videos to PDFs. They can be an email list or a social media following. It’s present and past clients who loved the work you delivered. These have more than short term value. They are basically a license to continue to grow.
Marketing assets often don’t have a short term ROI that will impress you. As a matter of fact, you may only break even for a little while; but growth does come when you deliver quality to your audience.
The thing to remember of about assets is, they are tied to exponential growth and not short terms gains. Produce a great stream of content to an email list of 10 and it will soon be 50 members strong. Deliver value to a Twitter following of a few hundred and you will be talking to thousands before the end of the year.
Strategize Value and Not Revenue
The key to assets is focusing on value and not immediate revenue. I know this sounds counterproductive, but it’s the foundation to long term growth. Sometimes, what we build and deliver is all about the value to our clients and focusing on the next sale and not the immediate engagement. Delivering an email newsletter packed with value doesn’t have an immediate ROI, but it can keep clients loyal and gain you a crazy number of referrals.
This mindset is counterintuitive, but it works. Focus on the long game and not on the immediate sale. Don’t always worry about the next sale, but build the foundation first. Sales will come. Clients will deliver. Build value.
