What is wrong with small business marketing today?

This is a question that I’ve been asked a few times recently during podcast interviews:

What is wrong with small business marketing today?

And in my role at Indispensable Marketing, I’ve actually had the opportunity to do our sales for a number of years, speaking with tons of small business owners and CEOS that are looking to purchase and move forward potentially with a marketing firm.

These are the stories that I hear on a regular basis, in terms of what they’re struggling with in relation to small business marketing.

🤕 I’ve spent most of my marketing budget on a new website. And it looks great, but it’s not generating any leads.
🤕I’m paying an SEO company 1000s of dollars each month, and I have no idea what kind of results I’m getting.
🤕I’m sending out direct mail, and I keep doing it. I think maybe some people are calling, but I have no idea.
🤕 I’ve started to invest in paid advertising. And people are going to my website, but no one is actually calling me.

These are examples of things that I hear in terms of where people are struggling with marketing.

Do any of these resonate with you? Do you have similar experiences?

What do all these examples have in common?

They have the number one thing that is wrong with marketing today: there are a lot of people out there selling the pieces of the marketing puzzle and promising the world with tactics.

CEOs of small businesses who are frustrated with marketing and mention that it’s a “mess” and “all over the place” … it’s usually because you’ve forgotten something very simple: marketing is a process.

It must be Launched, Grown and Amplified in a process way.

Earlier this year I sat down with the principal of a law firm to chat about marketing.

She admitted that it’s been a challenge to gain traction with their firm’s marketing. She’s hired a website agency, a social media person, a video person, and any other marketer that’s promised to grow their law firm.

I told her it’s actually hard to buy and execute marketing services as a small business owner. Everybody is selling a piece of the puzzle, a fraction of this and, “I’ll do this for you” and, “I’ll do that”. She agreed.

What she really wanted and needed was a marketing partner who could put all of their marketing together in a strategic and process way.

Conclusion

Having a process that you can repeat and get better at is one of the secrets to scaling your marketing or any aspect of your business for that fact.