At an all-you-can-eat buffet, there are no WRONG choices.  You can eat a salad and grilled fish, or you can opt for fried shrimp and french fries…. ample desserts or fresh fruit.  None of these choices are wrong.

It just depends on your objectives.

So, if you’re trying to lose weight or maintain a trim figure, the latter is wrong — simply because it doesn’t meet your goals. It’s counter-productive.

If your objective is simply to eat whatever and as much as you want, well, the latter is the perfect choice.

The same CHOICE- MUST -MATCH – OBJECTIVE principle (I made that up.) is at work in life, marriage, and — of course — business.  Especially when you’re choosing what to do for your marketing.

Let me tell you how MOST business owners choose what they’ll do for marketing.  (Remember, most businesses fail. Miserably.) They choose:

• Based on Personal Preference.  It doesn’t matter what YOU  like… in terms of marketing.  The only thing that matters is what YOUR MARKET responds to.  That’s it.  MUCH of marketing is about building the ego (rather than the bank account) of the business owner.  And so, advertising sales executives sell to ego.  (Good for the ad salesman.  Bad for the business owner.)  So, forget what YOU like or what YOU respond to. Marketing is about getting a message to YOUR market that causes THEM to take a specific action.  So, lay personal preferences aside.
• Based on Peer Review. Let me go ahead and tell you what you’ll get when you run your marketing decisions past your peers… One of two useless / possibly dangerous (if you listen to them)  scenarios:  1) A business-as-usual suggestion. Anything OUTSIDE of the norm will be criticized.  Forgive them.  They’re following the masses into business failure.  They just don’t get it. OR 2) feedback that overlooks strategy and objective and focuses only on graphics or formatting.  Again, forgive them. That’s all they see.  Forgive them, and ignore them.  What matters is how OFTEN your market responds to what you’re putting out there.  So, use market results, NOT peer reviews.
• Based on Peer Pressure. Doing what everyone else in your industry does. Again, most people in your industry WILL FAIL… shutting their doors with massive debt, frustration and bitterness.  If you don’t want to join them, look at what THEY are doing and do the opposite — ESPECIALLY with regards to your marketing decisions.
• Based on What’s EASY.  I’m more and more disgusted every day that the whole notion of paving your own road, carving your own path, making your own way is entirely distasteful in our country — simply because we WANT a life (and business) of EASE.  Listen, if this were EASY, 80% of businesses would succeed WILDLY.  Some marketing is EASY.  But, don’t negate the hard work that generates a much larger response.

So, that’s how MOST people choose their marketing initiatives.  The look at the BUFFET of marketing options:

 Email — Direct Mail — Cold Calling–Networking — Speaking — Print Newsletter — E-newsletter — Joint Ventures — Print Ads — TV ads — Radio Spots — Blog Talk Radio — Groupon — Living Social — and more!

And they choose based on any combination of the reasons above. None of these options are WRONG, of course.  But we have to be sure that what we’re choosing is a MATCH for what we hope to achieve.  So, remember:  Choice -MUST- Match- Objective.  

Have questions about YOUR best marketing options?  Email me:  michelle@bmichellepippin.com and let me help.