Here’s what business owners are telling me, in increasing numbers every day.

Our website used to generate regular sales or leads. Now it doesn’t.

Our newsletter used to attract client enquiries. Now it doesn’t.

Our Linkedin, Facebook (whatever) activity used to regularly drive decent traffic to our website. Now it doesn’t.

Our business used to grow steadily each year. Now it doesn’t.

Our future used to look promising. Now it doesn’t.

When things are heading in the wrong direction, literally the only commercially viable option you have is to change direction. To try something better. Something different. Something new. This means either adjusting elements of your existing marketing strategy, replacing elements of your marketing strategy or creating a new marketing strategy that’s designed for the unique economic conditions we all face.

The main challenge here is that everyone, including me, finds the process of change at least a little scary. However, when used correctly, that uneasy feeling can be what drives you and your business forward.

Allow me to explain.

There’s a business maxim I’ve heard many times over the years. You have probably heard it too. “If it doesn’t feel scary, it’s not moving you forward”. In other words, when you’re heading in the wrong direction, you can use fear as your compass, to guide you forward.

And conversely, if you feel entirely comfortable about putting your changes into play, it could be that you’re aiming too low for the kind of improvement you need.

For a multitude of different reasons, these are truly challenging times. And there’s nothing to suggest that things will ping back to anything like the way they were before the 2020’s.

None of us (small business owners like you and me) can tough this one out. It’s a 100%, totally open-ended situation. This means that every day you try to stay as you are, you’re actually going backwards at an accelerating pace, compared to your proactive competitors.

So, use your compass. And embrace the changes you know you need, even if they are a little scary.

One component of successful marketing, is knowing what needs to be done.

A second component of successful marketing, is to put that knowledge into action.

And an essential third component of successful marketing, is to keep on doing what’s required. Once things start moving, they need to keep on moving. Lasting success requires an ongoing effort. Continuous forward movement.

Marketing momentum

Before you know it, you’ve created true marketing momentum. Marketing momentum is where your intelligent activity (doing the right things, correctly) combines, to attract the results you need. For example, an increasing number of; sales leads, sales conversions, client enquiries, new clients, proposal requests, bid requests, client referrals, new subscribers, media requests… exciting times for sure.

Here’s the reason I’m sharing this with you: Once you’ve created marketing momentum, that momentum must be maintained and sustained.

• You need to keep actioning your ideas.
• You need to carry on looking for great opportunities.
• You need to turn up again and again and again.
• You need to consistently review and increase your targets or goals, as old ones are achieved,
• You need to remain dedicated to improving how your business operates.
• You need to keep working your plans.
• You need to carry on delighting your clients.
• You need to stay on the lookout for people who can improve your business.
• You need to repeatedly make big, exciting promises and then deliver.

Doing all of the above is easy at the start, especially if you have an existential need for more clients or more customers. But when all the important marketing numbers are moving in the right direction and things are going great, finding the motivation to keep your marketing momentum moving forward can become harder.

And momentum soon fizzles out when left unattended.

This is something I work on regularly with new clients. Interestingly, very few ever think it will be a problem for them. This is largely because when people hire me, they do so when they’re looking for massive increases in sales and financial results. They’re in the ideal mindset for creating momentum.

But.

As things start to improve, with exciting results moving all their important numbers in the right direction, they unconsciously think they’ve arrived. That this new level of success is a destination. Irreversible, so long as they work hard.

They forget they were already working hard before hiring me… and hard work didn’t produce the results they wanted.

Momentum needs to be invested in regularly. You won’t need reminding of this at the beginning. However, this could change when your marketing is taking your business and your lifestyle to a whole new, exciting level. So keep moving forward.

There’s a powerful marketing lesson I’d like to share with you, from my own personal experience.

I visited a store yesterday morning. In the space of just a few minutes, they damaged their reputation and lost at least 2 customers instantly. They will almost certainly have already lost more by the time you read this, as the story has now surfaced on a local Facebook group.

Here’s what happened.

I was standing in line waiting to buy a new razor, at a local, independent store. A customer in front of me was trying to exchange a faulty hair dryer she’d bought from them. The hair dryer was, apparently, 2 days past the store’s return policy. The customer tried to explain that she’d just returned from a 14 day business trip and couldn’t return it sooner.

The guy at the store wasn’t interested. He just kept loudly telling the customer there was nothing he could do. The customer left the store, vowing never to return. I put my purchase back on the shelf and decided to buy a razor elsewhere.

A better approach leads to a better result for everyone

The guy at the store was wrong when he said there was nothing he could do. There were a number of useful things he could have done.

• He could have listened to the customer as she explained her situation. Instead, he chose to avoid eye contact.
• He could have looked at her passport, when she showed him the stamps that proved she returned to the country yesterday. Instead, he chose to look away, rolling his eyes.
• He could have spoken to the customer with empathy. Instead, he chose to keep repeating the same mantra, over and over.
• He could have been flexible because of the customer’s situation, offering her a working hair drier or maybe a discount on a second one. Instead, he chose not to.

And he could have turned the customer’s problem into a positive story.

He could have given her a remarkable customer experience, which she would share with her family and friends. After all, he’d sold her a defective product and her passport stamps (which she showed him) proved she’d been out of the country until the previous day.

Instead, he chose to give the customer a very poor experience. The kind of experience she has since used as a warning, via a popular local Facebook group. When I last looked, her story had almost 100 reactions, with comments from others who’d had similar experiences.

All this is happening, when the store had a great opportunity to delight a customer and give her a positive story to share. It would have cost them pennies.

Small business should play to our strengths

As an independent business, they had the flexibility to deal with that situation in any way they wanted. And that’s exactly what they did. Whether the guy who served the customer was the owner or an employee, it was clear that they operate a rigid returns policy.

Certainly, the retailer needs to avoid customers taking advantage of them. However, it was very clear that this customer was an exceptional case. This is the exact kind of situation, where a small business can use their agility and win a client’s goodwill and loyalty. It’s a golden marketing opportunity. (I wrote this piece explaining why everything in business is marketing that you might find useful).

Our customers will talk about us, regardless. It’s the way we look after them that determines the kind of story they share.

Give this a try.

• Think of some amazing things, which you would LOVE your marketplace to be telling their friends about your business.
• Write those amazing things down.
• Next, put a plan together of what you will need to do, in order for your marketplace to say those amazing things.
• Finally, get to work on your plan.

This is a switch of focus, from the vast majority of advice on getting referrals.

Most referral advice is about how to motivate others to recommend your services or products to their friends and contacts. How to change their behaviour.

This advice is focused on you taking direct control. It’s about you crafting an experience, which makes people want to recommend your services or products.

People are naturally hardwired to communicate with each other. When we give our marketplace an experience worth talking about, that’s exactly what they do.

The wonderful thing about this, is that it means your referral stream is always, always under your direct control.