Reading a great article from the Wall Street Journal digital network today on deciding when it’s time for Plan B reminded me of an important lesson that several entrepreneurial friends have shared with me:
If at first you don’t succeed, don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Try, try again.
The business owners in this article are doing just that–and realizing greater results by changing their business plans.
Likewise, so many of my clients and I work together throughout an entire calendar year for this very reason to work on various ways of marketing their messages; this works well because it’s very difficult to knock a “one-hit-advertising-wonder” out of the park. If everyone could advertise somewhere once and have huge success, that advertising source would likely be so highly-priced as to squeeze some smaller or start-up businesses out of the market.
Although the article itself focuses on the business plan and changing that up if results aren’t seen, the same thing is true with marketing.
For example, if your social media plan isn’t working for you, try something new: we’re working with a client now to tap into the mommy blogger market as she never has before and growing her Twitter presence; both are helping greatly with SEO.
If your web ads aren’t providing the desired results, try surveying customers to find out what publications they read–perhaps their answers will surprise you.
In this economy, many high-end retailers have failed: this is the perfect time to diversify inventory and focus on services if the high-end schwag isn’t moving.
Making changes doesn’t mean that you’re doing something wrong, it just means working hard to try and do the right thing. So we work hard and try, try again.
