Marketing is Like Exercise
Ignoring marketing is like ignoring your doctor’s advice about exercise.
She says exercise is good for you. It will add years to your life, give you energy; keep you young, in shape, fit and trim. We’ve heard it all before.
Everyone has heard the CFO that says ‘prove to me I will get a ROI from my marketing’. Yeah me to — every person wants an immediate return on their investment.
CFO fixate on the today’s campaign for tomorrow results. Marketing doesn’t work that way.
Marketing Is like Exercise – done daily and reward appear in the future
I was a very fit person. I raced mountain bikes, windsurfed three days a week, golfed, played soccer. Fighting fit, look healthy, looked good, felt better.
Now! I couldn’t run ½ mile without fainting – let alone a 5K. And running a 5k today is not going to make me feel better tomorrow or the next week. I will pull a muscle and be laid up for a week. And feel like crap for it.
However, I know running three days a week for months will make me feel better, healthier and stronger. And if I stay with it I will be fit and trim like when I was 20….well I can dream.
Benefits of Marketing are not Immediate
Just like running today will not lower your blood pressure tomorrow. A HIT routine this morning will not burn off 1 lb of fat tomorrow.
The analogy is the same for your marketing efforts. Improve your websites SEO daily and you will see the results not in hours but in months.
It is not about this week’s campaign’ or next week’s ads. If you market today you will not get leads tomorrow. Marketing does not work that way.
Marketing is not a silver bullets, is not a quick fixes, has no short cuts and no get rich quick schemes.
If you do #RCS, (real company sh1t), help people and not sell at them, educate, give, build trust, people will like you and buy from you. Success will arrive. But, not overnight.
Your business will probably get better, leads will probably arrive and you will probably convert them into customer. If you are really good those customers will become advocates.
Why do you think a can of Coke costs more than a can of Tesco, Aldi, or Asda (Wallmart) cola? It is not because of Superbowl ads. It’s the accumulation of all the Coke ads we have seen in the last 100 years.
I Carefully Choose ‘Probably’
There are no guarantees in life or in business. Just like exercise, marketing can explode.
During my jog tomorrow I could get hit by a car or get a heart attack. Alternatively, I could get a host of other aliments in the next week, month or year.
Predicting the future is difficult. But, I will not stop exercising just because I can get hurt.
Marketing is equally volatile.
Miss a subtle shift in the market; fail to spot a change in your customers needs and poof all your marketing and customers are gone.
Marketing, like life, is about likelihood and probabilities. Zero certainties in those words. That is just how it works.
Ever hear the story about the reporter that asked the CEO ‘what is the secret to your overnight success?’ the man replies ‘it was 20 years in the making’.
Does this imply that success only comes with a big investment in marketing? No.
But, I know that without exercise my cholesterol will go up, my waist size will increase, my energy levels will decrease and my medical ailments will read like who’s, who of unpronounceable diseases.
But, without marketing road to failure is certain.
