Small business marketing is not like taking a family vacation. You see, eventually you'll discover some marketing strategies that will start to attract attention and generate the response you've been hoping for. Marketing isn't like a vacation where you have a final destination and then you stop traveling because you're there.Attend talks and workshops. It takes regular and consistent effort to keep your pipeline full of good, high-quality leads and to keep moving your prospects forward until they become paying clients. Now with my own family we've taken some similar but generally smaller scale trips. Look for the ones that offer proven, hands-on strategies and tactics. Get hands-on assistance.Keep Moving On. When your measurements show you that something is working, keep doing it.And much like the family vacation, continual asking of are we there yet or how much longer often leads to unplanned stops or detours.Unfortunately, many small businesses get frustrated or burned out when they work on their marketing. When does the fun start? You know, the fun -- when prospects start calling and others refer and send business your way. Are we there yet?Marketing needs to be an ongoing, lifelong kind of journey for your business. There are lots of books available on the subject. Our famous treks across America in the family station wagon or the rented RV, when the station wagon became impractical. Find a group of people who care just as much about your success as you do, just as you'll care about their success. If you go and participate fully, you'll often get just as much from the other participants as you will from the session itself. In fact, do more of it. Once again, they start wondering how much longer it will be.When you find yourself asking this most asked question, consider any or all of the following ideas to keep you continuously moving forward.. This is not a group of friends who will simply stroke your ego.Eventually they start planning, or maybe just take off on, another marketing trip. The question "are we there yet?" needs to become "how do we keep going?" Yes, you do need to monitor results so you can assess how well things are working to get you where you want to go. Working with a coach or marketing consultant who can help you focus, set goals, prioritize, create action plans and help hold you accountable could be an invaluable experience for your business. But even worse than that, many times the "are we there yet" mentality didn't even let them finish planning or put the idea into action. It might seem like in fact, "you are there" and so you put the marketing on cruise control.
