In the excitement of growing a business, almost all owners sometimes wonder if they should be doing more, and many pour this energy into looking for someone from the outside to tell them what is wrong.
My best advice? If you have a marketing strategy that is working, you should stick with it – maybe find ways to fine tune it. Second-guessing yourself is not how you got into business, and it isn’t the way to stay in business. If you are producing positive results, why in the world would you abandon the strategy? Every time you change course, it is like starting over – which means more time and money to commit. The free audit offered by a big name digital marketing firm, or that new guy you hire to “look things over” will most likely impress you with the sheer magnitude of things that are “wrong” and offer an extensive (and expensive) plan. After all, these audits and reviews are sales tactics and these reps are salespeople who did what you asked for and are now trying to sell you on their solution. You did, after all, ask themm to tell you what is wrong with what you are currently doing. You didn’t ask him for praise. So he tells you. Plus, there is money in it for him to find something wrong.
There is more than one right way to do things, with neither being necessarily better than the other. Deciding that one is better than the other and spending years flip-flopping between strategies, is one of the biggest traps you can walk into. But even worse than exchanging one idea for another, is putting them all together. On the surface, it seems logical to do everything that experts recommend. It can, however, be quite disastrous to combine too many great ideas in the same cauldron. That is because not everything blends well together. If I were painting a landscape in oils and someone told me that watercolors were the best way to capture nature, it would not serve me well to add watercolors to my painting. It defeats the goal of creating a dazzling oil painting. If I started over in watercolors, I would end up with a different product. Both are quality pieces of art; but, is one better than the other? The answer to that question would be opinion, not fact.
When it comes to how you run your business, be sure you know what you want because that is what those vying for your business aim to deliver. In the end, it is not the type or color of paint that matters, or the marketing team you go with, but how much new business was created. You need to find the strategy and technique that gets results for your business. For some people that might be watercolors, for others, the oil painting. But if things are going well, there is no need to look for experts to show you a “better” way to get what you are already achieving.
Luckily, in the Internet Marketing industry, real marketing providers won’t be using crazy sales tactics to convince you, but rather, the power of data. The numbers don’t lie, and will show you whether or not you are succeeding in growing and marketing your business through the presentation of objective information. Unlike someone’s opinion of your painting, your improved Internet presence and the resultant increased business is the proof that you are on the right track. If you stay with it, it only gets better.
