What the heck am I going on about now, you ask? Well, so many new clients say to me “I’ve tried it all, Chala. SEO, new website, expensive magazine ad, FaceBook advertising, outsourced LinkedIn content guy from the Philippines, call centres to do cold calls to set appointments, our own events and cocktail parties for clients, keynotes at our industry functions, I’ve even been on TV and have a book and NONE of it has worked to get more sales. What can you show me that’s different?’ This, my friends is what’s called ‘Throwing Spaghetti at the Wall Marketing”…and it doesn’t work because there’s no strategy behind it.
Willy Nilly Marketing
A marketing strategy is the combination of the intelligent and scientific choice of who to target for your marketing and how to position yourself in front of said target. This lovely combo is topped off by your messaging which determines what you’ll SAY to these wonderful prospects to get them to go home with you (not in that way!). Any hoo, if you are doing all the laundry list of things that I listed above but in front of 1. the wrong target 2. with the wrong positioning that blends you in with EVERYONE else and 3. by saying things that have zero impact on your target audience, well, you will have wasted all that gorgeous marketing.
Spaghetti Marketing
The first time I found out that you could throw a spaghetti noodle at a wall to see if it sticks (to see if it’s cooked), I just about died laughing. I mean who would think of such a thing? How did this tradition start anyway? I can just see an Italian Momma getting mad at her kids and throwing the whole pot at them and some hitting the wall and the tradition starting. But I digress..when companies (usually small ones) just start trying one marketing idea after another to see if it’ll drive sales, they are desperate and clueless. They often look to their competitors and colleagues in the industry to mimic what others are doing. I mean, everyone’s doing SEO and Facebook ads, right? Let’s get on that digital bandwagon…Then thousands of Dollars later, oops…it didn’t work? OMG why not? Well, because again, read above.
So if you’re feeling the pressure to bring in more sales, do not give into the temptation to throw some spaghetti marketing at the walls to see if they’ll work. Get yourself a strategy instead. Read books, hire people like me or go to seminars- but don’t just mindlessly do what everyone else is doing because you’ll lose a lot of money and time that way.
Want to reposition your messaging to grow your leads? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch me on YouTubeor connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk
