Boom!
Your marketing is 100% perfect and complete!
At least that’s the way that a lot of marketing companies will present their services. They want you to believe that marketing has only 3 steps:
- You pay them (a lot of) money
- Magic happens
- You’re successfully marketed
It doesn’t actually happen that way. The real process is a lot more messy. Creating a marketing plan takes a lot of time and a lot discussion. It has to–you’re buying a custom-made business suit from an experienced tailor, not a sweatshirt off the rack at Wal*Mart. If successful marketing were as easy as running down a checklist, every company would be a Fortune 500.
Real marketing takes time and effort–and it makes mistakes (you’re a business owner; you know how that goes). This company is no exception.
Veritas
As part of my marketing campaign, I’m going to do something that very few companies do: I’m going to be open and honest. I’m going to share what it takes to market my own company. I’m going to share the changes in the logo (2 already), and (significant) changes to the website, and how we engage new media streams. And I’m going to point out areas in which I have handicapped myself through the choices I made before “getting serious” about consulting.
Why?
To show you, my potential clients, that this isn’t magic, and even though it takes work, it can be done. More than that, I’ll be talking about the changes I’m making and the reasons behind them. Often, a small change can be important.
If you’re interested in seeing behind the scenes, you can follow it all on the Change Log–one page to show (and explain!) the changes being made.
Blaze is the founder of Redleaf Consulting. He started as a dishwasher at the age of 15, and worked his way up to Director of Marketing for a Sino-German joint venture in Jiangsu, China. He has over 25 years of experience in education, communication, and marketing.