If you don't have time to plan

“if you don’t have time to clean up, you don’t have time to cook.”

Professionals understand that the project is the whole project, not simply the fun or urgent or interesting part of the work.There are countless productive shortcuts along the way. But not finishing the project isn’t one of them. - Seth Godin

If you don’t have time to plan for business growth don’t bother spending money on marketing.

Marveling at the sight of your company’s name or brand on a Facebook post, Instagram or a Google AdWords ad is the equivalent of finishing the ‘project’ - staring at a beautifully prepared gourmet dish for example.

How many hours of testing and measuring were invested before the recipe is finalized? How many variations of what could have been the best dish did the chef go through before declaring, “this is it!”

There are no shortcuts in marketing - dumping a bunch of spices into a pot and hoping it’ll taste good is the equivalent of just filling screens with posts, videos or retargeting messages.

You see, planning for business growth and especially marketing, is similar to preparing a gourmet meal except that you’re preparing it for a specific audience; an audience whose eating habits you study, whose behavior and decision-making you observe, an audience that is impatient, very critical and an audience that has choices - if they don’t like your dish they are not coming back.

Project 2019 requires careful preparation; an unbiased assessment of what went well in 2018 and what must improve; a strategy that leads to a written Marketing Plan - your roadmap (ingredients) to meeting your goals. So many business owners start (and end) the conversation with, “We spent X dollars on marketing this year. Can we reduce it? OK fine, let’s just keep it the same but we need better results.”

Here’s the thing: “Analytics and metrics are buzzwords used by marketing professionals. Very few owners understand (or take time to understand) the difference between data and analytics - publishers and agencies love to shower us with big numbers like reach and impressions while what really matters is CPC, CTR and ultimately conversions that lead to sales.

There are no shortcuts to getting conversions or growing your business. Reach out if you’re ready to objectively assess your marketing and business.