Have you ever woken up at 3:19am and had to get an idea typed out, only to start shivering after 45 minutes of typing and realize that you are still in your skivvies?
Your marketing efforts for your business shouldn’t be like that.
Sending out a newsletter, flyer or promotional piece without having all of the elements in place to back that up, is like typing until the sun comes up and then answering the front door while forgetting that you woke up at 3:19 to type something up.
Oops.
I had a client recently call me to ask for a specific photo. I sent him the photo, but was curious as to what he was going to use it for, so I called to confirm and asked a few questions while he was on the phone.
“So, what project are you thinking about using the photo for?”
“Oh, that was for the newsletter that I just sent out…”
“Uh, I don’t remember you asking me to set up any landing page on your website to capture information or support the information in any newsletter…”
“Why would I want to do that?”
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you promote something via email, snail mail, Ads or any other outlet, you should always have your infrastructure in place to support someone’s interest in your product or services. This is not about throwing a marketing grenade and seeing what happens next. This is about reminding people in the desert how thirsty they are and having the only Lemonade stand in a 3,000 mile radius.
When you put out information, you need to always think about how the people who are receiving the information can get more. If you get someone interested in you and then you just walk away, you are missing out on the opportunity that you were trying to create in the first place.
It’s ok to get excited and run with a marketing idea as fast as you can. Just try and remember your pants in the process.
Toff Ward
OpenSourceMarketer.com
