It happened so quickly I didn’t know what hit me. One minute I was paddling my kayak downstream, the next I was upside down dragging my head along the bottom of the river. It’s true, I did have a helmet on, but that didn’t seem to make the rocks I was bumping into feel any softer.
Despite thinking of myself as an expert at everything to do with boats, it was my first time paddling whitewater so I had to resort to…
Falling out of the boat and swimming it to shore, which was all a bit embarrassing. After all, I’d grown up in and around boats.
My mistake had been one of false confidence. Not to mention being 19 years old at the time, but that happens to everyone I know.
I assumed that just because I’d been in boats before, even been out a few times in a kayak, that I actually knew how to navigate rapids, even the small ones we were paddling.
My train of thought had been, hey, the other kids in my college could do it, all I had to do was follow them, right?!
Assuming I could just watch accomplished kayakers navigate through whitewater and just copy what they did, was… well, go ahead and say it, plain stupid!
The funny thing is, that’s what I see 97% of small business owners doing everyday. They look around to see what others are doing, and then they try to do the same thing. They try and navigate this rocky economy by copying their competition.
Just like me, they look around and tell themselves they’ve been in business for years, so they should inherently know how to market their business, and after all, how hard could marketing be. Then they jump in and try to navigate it on their own.
And just like yours truly, they discover that it’s not as simple or straightforward as they thought. As I’m sure you know, effective marketing is anything but obvious.
Two things you need to remember about marketing your business:
1. Following others can be dangerous to your health and your business.?
Copying what your competitors are doing guarantees that you’ll always be behind the competition. After all, most businesses get average results at best, and if you want to be better than average, you need to stand out from your competitors to be in front.
2. It’s easy to beat your competition.
The marketing bar set by your competitors, the norm in marketing, is low. Most of the content they are creating and using is so boring it’s embarrassing. Standing out is easy. And when you do you’ll see your business take off, even in this economy.
Want to stand out from your competition?
If you provide local services, I can show you how to get all the attention you want for your business.
To your success,
Charlie
P.S. To be successful, you only need two types of marketing to work, your web marketing system and your referral system (note the word system).
Find out how to make the two work together.
