Confusion: 1. Lack of understanding; uncertainty. 2. the state of being bewildered or unclear in one’s mind about something.
Tax: 1. A strain or heavy demand. 2. a sum of money demanded by a government
Confusion Tax: The time and money wasted due to uncertainty, lack of confidence, and the absence of clarity.
You know what you want: new customers, increased revenues, and to grow your business. However you doubt your ability to identify the right marketing approach. You look around at what everybody else is doing and jump on the bank wagon. Bouncing from one latest-greatest idea to the next without achieving results, you wonder why the money you spend on advertisement, direct mail, social media, web sites, and the like, are not producing results. To you marketing is a confusing and expensive, but necessary, distraction. When you are confused you create errors, make bad choices, and often seek an easy way out that normally does not go well.
You are paying the Confusion Tax
You are not alone. Most businesses do not have a marketing strategy, a marketing calendar, or a marketing budget. They cannot measure return on investment or results of their marketing efforts. They do not know what their marketing activities will be in 3, 6 or 12 months. Most businesses know what their ‘target market’ is but can’t define their ideal customers. Those are the customers that provide repeat business, understand the value of their business, and refer them to others. Like you, they are paying the Confusion Tax.
You can stop paying the Confusion Tax
Strategy and planning remove the uncertainty of your marketing effort. A marketing strategy based on the unique strengths of your business, your ideal customer, and your ability to deliver a “wow” experience will provide clarity, focus and give you confidence that you are growing your customers, revenue, and business.
Your marketing strategy process begins with these three questions
- Why, deep down, do you do what you do?
- Who, in very specific terms, makes an ideal client for your business?
- What, in contrast to every other firm that says they do the same thing you do, really sets your business apart in a way that the ideal client values?
Once you can honestly answer these questions you can begin to develop the foundation of your marketing strategy: differentiation, core messages, ideal customer profile, and a customer experience that gets talked about. Getting those in place first will allow you to build a marketing system that gets the results you expect, grows your business, and eliminates the Confusion Tax.
Want more information on how to build a successful marketing program for your business? Download this free eBook: 7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success