I was having a conversation with a therapist a few days ago and I was explaining to him various marketing techniques he could use to attract new clients. The surprise came when he replied to my question about when to start as he essentially said that he is now “kind of ok in terms of clients” and will start some marketing actions in the New Year when he will need new clients.
At that point I realised that while it is obvious for me that to any (decision about) action there is a delay in reaction which is definitely not obvious for many. Let’s see what the delays are which will be incurred when you decide to start a marketing campaign:
- Development delays: anything that needs to be designed and developed, from a new leaflet or website, will take days, weeks or even months to be ready, checked, printed or published. This is depending on what is already there, or not there, in this case. Even a simple variation to an existing page or piece of marketing will take some time.
- Deployment delays: as soon as the brochure is ready or the website is published it’s not going to happen that, similarly to the next episode of Harry Potter, all prospects are there waiting for it and to book appointments with you.
- Reaction delays: yes perhaps some people see your new website or advertisement and ring you straight away, most of them will have to see it quite a few times and think about it. By this token when everything is in place and ready to go it will take a while before things are really going at the speed or intensity you expect.
Best suggestion for all people with little or no knowledge of marketing out there is to start today, now, and keep doing something every day. You can be absolutely sure that there will be delays and things will not happen exactly when you expect but after some time everything will be in place and you will have your own marketing machine working for you.