The Saturday before Easter, a week and a half ago, my family gathered in our kitchen to dye eggs. And in honor of their departed grandfather, Frank, one of my children (now in their 20s) dyes an egg.
With all the bright colored dyes on the table, it’s a tradition to take one egg and dip it in every color, as their grandfather often did, with the result that… 
the egg, instead of being a brilliant hue of blue, green, red, or yellow – ends up a muddy brown. Frank had a great sense of humor and we like to honor him appropriately.
Here is what I see with all too many small business owners. They’re doing the same thing. Trying to do the same thing with their marketing and getting muddy results at best.
Too many small business owners are confused about what works and either do nothing or they try to do too many types of marketing instead of excelling at one or two, they frustrate themselves and only get middling results.
Here’s what Bill, a local service provider is doing. He’s using the “brown egg” marketing approach. He is targeting everybody with every possible method of marketing, including direct mail, newspaper ads, Internet marketing, referrals, yellow pages, and more.
Which is all very ambitious, but when I asked him which was working best, he had no idea.
Now, here’s something you need to know.
You didn’t decide to be a dentist, a chiropractor, a gym owner, manage an assisted living facility, practice law, and manage an ophthalmology practice – all at once. You’re savvy enough to know that you can only excel at one business or in the case of some superstars, two businesses at a time.
The same is true in marketing. You can only master and track a couple types of marketing at a time. Any more and you’ll be practicing brown egg marketing.
Which is actually good news!
In the 25 years I’ve been helping businesses with their marketing, what I’ve found is that more types of marketing in the mix isn’t better, it’s usually worse. It’s sort of like adding every spice in the cupboard to a meal.
It’s better marketing that matters.
Having a clear marketing plan, getting it right and sticking with it. And the place to be doing that the last 10-12 years has been online. Online marketing trumps every other form of marketing, when it’s done correctly.
But here’s what no one tells you.
Online marketing is complex and requires a lot of expertise and time. If you still think it’s just a matter of putting up a website or sending out tweets here and there or messing with Facebook occasionally, well – time to wake up from that oft touted fantasy.
Being successful with online marketing requires a proven strategy, one you adhere to month in and month out that makes you stand out from your competitors, attracts qualified clients and gets them to contact you so you can close the deal, sign them up and give them what they want.
Online marketing can be overwhelming and frustrating if you try it on your own, which is why I created a team of experts to…
Do it for you!
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To your success,
Charlie
P.S. Want to master online marketing yourself? Do all the heavy lifting with some guidance? You can get access to the exact formula I use to keep my business and the businesses of my clients growing year in and year out.
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April 20th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
Hello Charlie, this is a very interesting post of yours as you are able to relate it on your previous activities which I find very useful and shows how good are you in business. Great advice. Keep it up and more success!