Marketing Consistency is King

We all want to succeed in business. We are determined to work hard and do all that it takes to reach the top. Yet, despite our best efforts, we often fail to demonstrate consistency, which holds our overall efforts together.

Hello ladies and gentlemen! It is that time of the week and I am proudly reporting for blogging duty. I hope that by now, you have taken my piece of advice and you have been focusing on the right goals while avoiding any other digressions that might stray you from the path to success. If you have managed to do that, congratulations! If you are still experiencing significant difficulties, calm down, take a deep breath, and set your priorities straight. You have to get your business going and get your show on the road. You have no other choice!

In line with my intention to blog about interesting tips and tricks that can propel your commercial ventures, today, I want to talk about something that both small and large companies tend to disregard. In fact, this is a trap that everyone seems to fall into and it goes under the name of consistency. Yes, people often forget about marketing consistency and why it is a critical element, which keeps their business efforts together. Confused? Well, read on to find out what I mean!

Are you familiar with the notion of one-hit-wonder? Music fans may jump ahead and come up with numerous examples. Yet, in order not to make this not so cryptic, I am going to give you an example. Have you heard of MC Hammer? Do you remember him? Yes? No? Ok, let’s take a trip down the memory lane. MC Hammer and his U Can’t Touch This tune topped the charts in 1990. Out of a sudden, he rose to fame, he sold millions of records, and he became one of the symbols of the 90s. His flamboyant style, his baggy pants also known as the Hammer pants, and his hip hop dancing moves are still remembered. Unfortunately, his spectacular rise was followed by a quick decline and nowadays, Mr. Hammer is largely missing in action. This begs the question what happened to this artist. Well, apparently the Hammer time ended abruptly, he lost his fortune, and he rarely appears in public. This is particularly sad as he had everything going so well for him and at the end, his empire fell apart. So, what’s the point here? Well, there are some harsh lessons to be learnt from the proverbial Hammer case. Those morals, however, have nothing to do with making better investments or not spending your money foolishly. They are more related to the concept of marketing consistency and what it entails for both small and large businesses. Indeed, this element is extremely important as it is very beneficial in the long run, it saves you a lot of money, it keeps you hip and trendy, it guarantees you a solid presence, and it spares you a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Over time, I have noticed that lots of companies simply underestimate the value of marketing and communications. What is worse, they tend to resort to marketing boosts and communications injections only when trouble knocks on their doors. In times of need, they expect a marketing wiz to step in and make long accumulated problems miraculously disappear with a single touch of his or her magic wand (which is the equivalent of an expensive marketing campaign). So, the marketer does whatever he or she can and when things somehow stabilize, ROI starts blooming like never before, brand awareness becomes rock solid, and profit comes in, he or she has to leave the marketing stage. In the mean time, most companies decide to rest on their laurels until the next marketing crisis kicks them in the teeth and they figure out they require urgent marketing assistance. Again. This, however, is not the way to go. Sporadic promotional initiatives and/or boosts do not guarantee long term results. The latter can definitely get you in the limelight for some time but as we all know, success in business requires a degree of consistency. You have to hold the marketing line every single day of the week, tweet interesting value-added content, engage your audience, keep people interested in your brand, and play in the open. Otherwise, you are going to have a very hard time promoting your products and/or services. Moreover, marketing is the glue that holds all of your incentives together and it steers your business in one direction or another. Hence, scant marketing activities and a lack of consistency are as helpful as pouring water in a broken bucket while filling in the holes with mud from time to time.

Yet, you should not take my argument for granted. Study some of the biggest companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Apple, Sony, Nintendo, etc. They have been consistent in their marketing affairs, they have never relied on a single campaign to boost their stocks or sales, and they have been trying to convey their promotional messages all along. After all, few products and/or services market themselves, no matter how amazing they are. At the end of the day, great products require great marketing in order to break through and rock the market. Therefore, take heed, remember that marketing is very important and it should be carried out on an outgoing basis. You need to be consistent with your online campaigns, your social media presence, your brand promotion, your inbound marketing efforts, and your communications practices to engage your customers. Otherwise, by economizing on marketing, you will end up spending more, and eventually, you might get in trouble.

Hence, try to do a little bit of marketing every day. Post a few tweets, try to interact with your audience, publish a few Facebook updates, write a blog post or two, make an interesting video, etc. The choice is yours and you can do that without spending a fortune. Act before the stakes get higher and you have everything to lose. After all, it is not a random coincidence that marketing consistency is king.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this article. I hope it gives you some tips as far as marketing planning is concerned. Exhibiting some marketing diligence and consistency would not hurt anyone. On the contrary, it would help you and your business grow and prosper. So, at the end, is up to you! Stay tuned to the feed that rocks, follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook as we have some interesting stuff coming up, including a short session on how to handle customers from hell. In the mean time, stay classy and rock on!