Why Shotgun and Outbound Marketing are Dead…and What You Can Do About It.

Have you ever made some really, really dumb mistakes with your business’ marketing plan?

The days of shotgun and outbound marketing are over......

I think we all have. Especially those of us that are living the life of owning a small business and trying to do whatever it takes in a difficult economy to gather leads and garner sales.

An Example of What Not to Do

I’m certainly no exception to the rule when it comes to marketing blunders. When I started my business 9 years ago with my two partners we literally knew nothing about advertising and marketing. I had never taken a single course on the subject in college , read an article online, nothing…..Not a great foundation, wouldn’t you say?

Because our business was that of installing swimming pools and hot tubs, we just figured we’d dab a little here and there and find out what medium would work the best….How about that for a plan?

As I’ve said before, this blog is all about helping other small businesses and sales/marketing professionals to not repeat the dumb mistakes that I’ve managed to make owning a business. In terms of my all-time biggest-dummy mistakes, our initial advertising/marketing plan is likely in the top 5(In a list of about 1000).

So what was our marketing methodology for the first five years of the business? Here’s a little glimpse in to my head during those years:

Radio advertiser shows up…hmmm, everyone is doing radio…it can brand us if we do it long enough….we need the sales….Let’s give it a try!

TV advertiser shows up….wow, cable TV advertising would be awesome for our visual product…it’s expensive…..but TV is the future….A 6 month contract??….Oh well, here we go!!

Magazine advertiser shows up…..sure looks like a nice product….and everybody reads this magazine….yikes, a 6 month commitment…but it goes directly to our target audience…we need the sales..Let’s give it a try!

Direct Mail guy comes by…holy cow, 50,000 homes in our target income!…..boy is it expensive….but our customers love these little cards….3 month minimum……Here we go again!

Phonebook guy struts in the office…..everyone uses the phonebook….the bigger the ad the better….my goodness these ads are expensive….but everyone uses the phonebook….geez, we’ll need to be in 5 books just to reach our entire audience….but everyone uses the phonebook….12 month commitment at that price?? Yikes…..but everyone uses the phonebook…Ok, we’ll take the big Ad.

And so, for the first 5 years of our business, such was our advertising plan. Literally, it was shotgun marketing at its finest. No rhyme, no reason, just making decisions by the seat of our pants and as the sales guy walked in the door.

And what was the end result? Well all those little small bills added up to be one massive financial pain in our you-know-what . In fact, there was simply no way to keep up with it all. We were in the vicious cycle of needing leads, needing sales, having no direction or plan, and spending way too much freaking money…..Ouch.

But like anything that is thrown in the fire and either forced to burn to death or do something about it, we chose to do something about it. We chose to get with the 21^st century. We chose to completely change our marketing paradigm.

Outbound is Dead

You see, everything I just mentioned, plus many other advertising mediums I didn’t mention, are all forms of Outbound Marketing, aka Interruptive Marketing. And this form of marketing is, for all intensive purposes, DEAD. I know, it is still out there, but trust me when I say it’s dead. Or maybe better stated– it will never be what it once was. The world has changed.

The fact is people are getting better and better at blocking out interruptive advertising and marketing. Whether it’s TiVo , Sirius radio, call blockers, etc; today’s consumer doesn’t want advertising to come to them. They want to go to it.They want to choose what ads they see, when they see them, and how they see them. And it is exactly because of this phenomenon that internet marketing, or should I say ‘Inbound Marketing’ is the future of the business world. Any supposed ‘marketing consultant’ who preaches otherwise is doing you a serious disservice and should be barred from ever consulting again (I know, I’m a little harsh).

The Things ‘Professionals’ Will Teach

Take for example a seminar I recently attended. The class was on effective marketing for pool and spa companies and what did the gentleman talk about? Direct mailers…. Print Advertising…. Phone Books.

30 minutes into this man’s class I was ready to scream, “This guy is an idiot and it’s obvious that he has never actually owned a small business!!!! Don’t pay attention to a word he’s saying!”

But instead I just sat at my seat and got nauseous as he went on and on describing ways in which these struggling pool and spa companies could dump their money into antiquated and old-school marketing mediums.

Alas, What to do?

When it comes down to it, today’s world of marketing and advertising is NOTHING like it was five years ago. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, a business’ marketing department, no matter how big or small, needs to be an information and content producing machine.

And before you say it, No, your business is not the exception to the rule.

Start Blogging Today

And how can every business start becoming an information/content producing machine? Although there are many, many ways this can be achieved, I will always say the first place to start is by having a blog. Blogging has changed my life and the face of my small business. Despite the fact that my swimming pool company only installs pools in the States of Virginia and Maryland, we get more website traffic than 99% of the pool builders in the world. In fact, I’ve only seen one company that gets more traffic than we do, and I think we’ll be passing them soon. By simply spending 2-4 hours a week, you can have such a transformation with your business as well.

So think about your business’ marketing campaigns and as you look forward to the future, ask yourself these important questions:

• What percentage of our marketing/advertising is outbound, or interruptive?
• What percentage is inbound? (Blogs, Website Traffic/SEO, Social Media)
• Is my business a content producing machine?
• Is my website a glorified brochure or does it teach, inform, and inspire?
• What changes will I be starting as of today?

I certainly do hope you consider these questions and continue on your path of effective, inbound marketing. I know it’s a different way of thinking but once you embrace this paradigm you’ll be blown away with the effect it has on your business.

If you have any questions, comments, or additions to this article, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts below, as I truly value the thoughts of my readers.

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