Have you enjoyed March Marketing Madness as much as I have? Well it’s not over yet. I have the great pleasure of introducing you to Todd Schnick. Todd is Chief of The Intrepid Group, a marketing firm out of Atlanta, Georgia. Todd specializes small to medium-sized companies (one of the reasons I wanted him to guest post) with a focus on integrating social media into their daily business lives and incorporating bold designs online and in marketing collateral. Besides all that, Todd is a friend. We met on Twitter last year through a mutual friend and have been tweeting ever since.

Here’s Todd’s post:

UNCLUTTER YOUR MARKETING

I have been doing a lot of reading about minimalism recently. I need to simplify my life. I need to shed all the clutter that is distracting me from the things I value the most. And in my research, I have learned a lot.

And as is typical, the ideas I uncover are hardly rocket science. In fact, they are quite simple. They just require the will and the discipline to execute on them.

As I have been going through this process, I have done a lot of thinking about applying minimalist principles to our marketing. And whenever I speak to folks about this, they get confused about where I am coming from, thinking I mean to stop their marketing altogether. Or to dramatically cut back on their marketing budget.

Hardly.

What I really mean is to “unclutter” your marketing. What do I mean by this? Simple:

1. Simplify your message.

2. Simplify your efforts.

3. Increase focus on the fewer things that matter.

4. And yes, you can reduce your marketing costs.

1. Simplify Your Message

When we talk about our business, most of us talk about too many things. We create messaging to talk to a broad range of potential clients. In other words, we cast too large a net. As a result, we catch nothing.

The goal? Determine the one, simple message that yields the most customers and/or return customers, and focus only on that.

2. Simplify Your Efforts

A lot of the small business people I know have too many things going on with their marketing. They are employing too many tactics. They have signed up for every conceivable online tool they can get their hands on.

As a result, they execute on NONE of them very well. And they waste time, money, and effort. Now, I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t try and test new things. But be discerning when you commit to trying something new. Plan it, think about it, and prepare yourself to get the most out of the experiment.

Too often, most entrepreneurs have TOO many things going on, and they have ZERO idea if this particular tactical option is even yielding a positive return.

Focus only on the things that work, that drive real profits.

3. Increase Focus on Things That Matter

Someone recently said that wannabe golfers don’t want to spend time on the driving range, so they just invest in expensive equipment at the pro shop. I love this, because it speaks to my very point.

For example, many small business people think that just buying the “best on market” CRM solution will magically turn around their prospecting.

Not so. As always, it depends on what you do with it. Using the previous example, you will only achieve what you want by “spending time on the driving range.” You simply have to remove all the time-consuming distractions, and focus only on the things that matter and drive profits.

You may have five different tactical options you are implementing in your marketing, such as time on the social web, face-to-face networking, local cable television advertisements, direct response mail, and Google Adwords.

Do you know which ones (if any) are actually leading to profitable customers? If only two of those options are producing, cut the other three, and focus on making the two that do generate profits work even better, or deepen the investment in those two.

4. Reduce Your Costs Too!

The biggest challenge I face with my clients is convincing them to spend money on their marketing. You have to spend money to make money.

But I have witnessed too many small business people who spend money frivolously on too many little things. They are bombarded with sales pitches from this company and that one, and they spend money trying them out with little to no regard for how any of these things integrate into their broad program.

(They are buying equipment in the pro shop, NOT practicing on the driving range…)

Simply removing all this tactical clutter can save you money. The time saved from fiddling with these can free you up to focus on things that matter, which will result in higher profits.

BE CLUTTER FREE!

At the end of the day, removing the clutter from your marketing program will save you time, frustration, stress, money – and FREE you up to focus on the core mission of your marketing – which is delivering a simple, clear message to your core market.

This results in focusing on what you do best to serve that market. In the end, you will see an increase in your profits – and you will enjoy your business more. And isn’t that what this is all about?

Todd, that is a message I needed to hear. Thank you.

I confess that I struggle with making things too complicated at times. Over time (and through learning some lessons the hard way) I am at a point in my business where I truly value simplicity. Do you? Don’t forget, if you would like to ask Todd specific questions regarding marketing, feel free to leave him a question in the comments section.

Tagged as: Branding, business development, entrepreneur, growth, march marketing madness, marketing, small business, Social Media