Here’s the thing about marketing. It’s never done.
So yes, the title of this post is deliberately misleading.
Even if you have a rock solid marketing plan (and 99.9% of small businesses don’t), it’s only rock solid for about a minute.
After that, there’ll be some new information, a rising trend, a change in the law, a sudden influx of customers… something that will change your thinking and change your plans.
And that is exactly as it should be.
When I first started marketing, the Internet didn’t exist. Nor was it even a twinkle in some computer genius’ eye. Nowadays, if you don’t market both online and in the real world, you’re just not in the marketing game – no matter what business you’re in.
Marketing is a slippery slope sometimes. You think you got it right and then someone or something throws a spanner in the works.
Maybe the price of advertising goes up. Maybe it falls. Maybe your product suddenly springs a fault and has to be recalled. Maybe you hit marketing gold with your latest campaign.
Sometimes you just can’t predict what’s going to happen. And even if you can, you still need to evaluate how you’re doing. You need to find out what’s working for you and what isn’t.
And once you know how successful (or not) your marketing is, you need to change your marketing course in light of what you discover.
So no – you can’t just get your marketing done once and for all.
But that’s the challenge of being in business. And the fun of it.
