Occasionally I hear marketing horror stories. They usually have something to do with poor communication.
The plot goes like this: âI pay this company every month, but I donât know what they do.â Itâs high-level frustration.
Your business has a problem, so you hire a marketing expert to fix it. You like the person or company you hired. They seem to understand your problem. The price seems right.
All good at the beginning
The honeymoon begins, and you put some effort into sharing some information. The next time you hear from your marketer, itâs another invoice.
And then you get another invoice. Maybe you look at your numbers to determine whether your problem is solved, or at least making progress toward a solution.
You call the marketing company asking for an update. You get one, but it doesnât quite make sense. The language sounds like it makes sense, but it doesnât exactly.
On the other hand
âThese things take time,â the marketer might say. And itâs true. Not much in marketing â online or otherwise â brings instant results. In fact, the marketer might be doing everything right and then wonder why the client seems impatient.
Or, maybe the marketer over-promised and under-delivered.
Either way, the tension builds until you begin to feel like youâve wasted your money
and you sever the relationship.
The ripple effect
Unfortunately, thatâs not the end of the story. You still have a problem, but now you don't know if you can trust somebody else to help solve it. You might even tell other business owners about your experience, which adds more distrust.
Itâs easy to see why communication is so important. And it takes at least two to communicate. It might mean better or more frequent updates from the marketer. It could mean the client or
the marketer asking better questions during the sales process.
I think marketers are obligated to be as transparent as possible about what they do, how they do it, and the results they get or donât get. Monthly reporting should be standard operating procedure, and those reports should include metrics AND what the numbers mean.
Drop the marketing-speak
Theyâre also obligated to speak the language of their prospective clients, not marketing-speak. Donât assume your
clients know what you are talking about.
I wish I could just blame bad marketers for communication problems. When I hear the horror stories, I shake my head and mutter about some marketers giving the rest of us a bad name.
Clients are on the hook, too
But clients carry some responsibility, too. Some marketing strategies require your participation and response.
And if you don't quite understand what the marketer is saying, ask questions until you get it. Itâs your money, after all.
Whether youâre a marketer or a client, if youâre not getting feedback, thereâs a problem. And the story will end badly.
The next newsletter arrives March 26. Spring will have sprung, weâll be just a few days away from opening day for Major League Baseball. If you havenât already, itâs time to make a plan for the second quarter. Is there one big-ish project youâd like to complete before June 30? What steps do you need to take to get there?
As ever, be grateful. Be generous. Be patient. Love.
Thanks for spending some of your time with me, . I appreciate you.
Mark
P.S. - This newsletter was 100 percent created by me, a human.
P.P.S. - Some links in this email might be affiliate links, which could generate small commissions for me at no extra cost to you.
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