What makes a great advertising campaign? The fact your high school buddy heard you on the radio?  Your Mother calling saying you look skinny in your commercial during the local news? Lots and lots of likes on your Facebook page? Who cares as long as the cash register rings.  The only thing that matters is if you have MORE money than before the campaign began. Do you really care if a customer didn’t ask about the special 10% discount when they mentioned the ad?  Just care about the customer showing up.  Asking for a special discount is not everyone’s style.

One specific media won’t be the magic elixir to reach every potential customer.  Facebook may work along with Google ad words.  Oh Wait!…..Maybe it was the radio & television campaign you ran last year that branded you so well that your social and SEM now work more efficiently.  Maybe someone saw your billboard, heard your ad, and then found an old pen with your logo and phone number.  When asked that customer will say….”Oh yea….I found your number on a pen in my junk drawer.”

Once again, who cares if the cash register is ringing.  Keep in mind marketing is so much more than advertising.  Marketing is woven into the fiber of every element of your brand.   From how you answer the phone, to how your employees interact in the community.  Brands are built one customer at a time.

Creating the perfect marketing machine is like building a Jenga puzzle with only so many pieces.  Keep it small and you have a nice, safe little Jenga.  But, as you expand and grow, the pieces you remove are just as important as the ones you add. Some elements are connected to each other.  Does your radio enhance your TV advertising? Does your direct mail enhance your digital marketing?  Did that last tweet knock down half your marketing Jenga?

The key is to not just dabble in a bunch of different media. Find something that works, and keep adding until you can dominate. Things will grow organically once you start having raving fans.  Once you are a household name in that media, add another.  Keep adding and growing. The most important thing is not to get cold feet when you “THINK” something stopped working. Maybe things changed and you need to change, but hastily removing the wrong piece can make everything else come tumbling down.

Home Depot doesn’t ask how someone heard about them.  Eventually, when you ask how someone heard about YOU they will say “Everyone’s heard of you”!