We all get stuck in habits, doing the same thing tomorrow that we did yesterday.  It happens in business as well.

There’s a good chance that your marketing is basically the same as last year.  Is that really because it’s the best possible thing to do?  Or was it because it was easier to continue with the same programs?

I work with lots of business owners who did some good thinking about marketing five or ten years ago, but haven’t done a serious re-examination since then.  But if you could sell more product by changing your approach, wouldn’t you want to?

I have two exercises for you which really aren’t that hard.

First:  Imagine that you’ve been able to magically double your budget of time and money for marketing.  There’s all kinds of great possibilities now, opportunities to do something REALLY cool and interesting.  What would it be?

Second:  Imagine that you’ve been forced to halve your budget of time and money for marketing.  OK, that sucks.  But move beyond the reaction – we’re just imagining, after all.  What are the first things you’d cut?  Rather than trimming everything back a bit, would you bit the bullet and cut something entirely?

Now that you’ve done these two exercises, combine the results.  If you stopped doing something on the second list so you could start something on the first list, what would be the result?  Would customers and prospects notice and respond?

There may be a time and a place for completely throwing out your marketing plan and starting fresh – but I only advocate that if you’re needing to reboot your image in the market and it’s worth the risk.  But even if you change 10% every quarter, that can revive your business pretty quickly!

Want to know more?  Check out the recording of my 11 September internet radio show where I discussed this in more detail.

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