So why are Medium sized businesses getting stuck? Here\u2019s what every mid-sized business needs to understand about Digital Marketing:<\/p>\n
Ego<\/strong><\/h2>\nI\u2019m a firm believer that ego is the #1 killer of all businesses<\/u><\/strong>. What makes this more crucial for medium sized businesses is that the CEO \/ leadership has already seen success doing things \u201ctheir way\u201d. Too often, new leaders & agencies enter the company and are told they must conform to outdated processes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Ego-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The problem here is two-fold:<\/p>\n
\n- As you\u2019ll see is a central theme of this article, Digital Marketing changes extremely rapidly. Most businesses don\u2019t explode overnight (even the ones we say do take years). Digital Marketing has likely already evolved heavily by the time the business hits the medium size.<\/li>\n
- You\u2019re limiting new ideas. Nobody has all the answers no matter how much experience you\u2019ve got. Hire people that are smarter than you and trust them to be experts at their craft.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Once the business gets to a certain size, leadership must start taking \u201csteps back\u201d and organizing strategy, focusing on prioritization and seeing the whole forest without focusing on the weeds. This transition might be very difficult for some.<\/p>\n
Too Many Meetings<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe worst aspect holding many medium sized companies back is the fact that they\u2019ve started having too many meetings. Hey Jerry, let\u2019s have a meeting about our meeting and then we\u2019ll do a follow up meeting to discuss that second meeting.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Meetings-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Yikes. Stop it.<\/p>\n
Communication is crucial (as you\u2019ll see below) but useless, over the top communication can be killer to your bottom line. Every meeting should have a super simple, top-level agenda. Keep it on topic and form a clear list of action items out of the call. If everyone leaves the call with nothing to do and no accountability, it was likely a wasted call.<\/p>\n
We use Monday.com as our task management software here, and slack for communication. If it were up to me I\u2019d never have any calls\u2026..ever. I hate them. There\u2019s wasted time sitting waiting for someone to join, awkward back and forth delays sometimes, intros and conclusions, banter, emotional debates that waste tons of time, etc., etc. It\u2019s just too easy to waste a LOT of time on a call.<\/p>\n
But using a task management software and simply logging \/ discussing tasks in there, and slack to quickly message someone if you need help? Super quick, easy, and saves a ton of time. I recommend you take the time to truly evaluate the number of meetings your team has every week. Are they truly all necessary?<\/p>\n
Progress over Perfection<\/strong><\/h2>\nDigital Marketing stops for nobody; thus, we preach progress over perfection here. Don\u2019t get me wrong, this doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t provide a high quality of work. We just believe in the 80\/20 rule; what\u2019s going to provide the most value in the least amount of time? In Digital Marketing there is never any shortage of ideas, there are almost an unlimited number of strategies and channels you can be utilizing to improve your business. The best companies aren\u2019t obsessing over one strategy, they\u2019re trying more at once than you and finding the best ones more quickly.<\/p>\n
Fail fast and cheap, move on to the next strategy, and when you find what works pour resources into it until you\u2019ve tapped it out. If you get stuck trying to perfect one little thing, you\u2019re losing valuable time that could be spent finding the true, winning strategy that drives more revenue to the business.<\/p>\n
One of the things we do here is try to have every employee think about the value they\u2019re driving to our clients. Are we doing a project because there is some need to see it done that way, or because we truly believe it will drive $X more revenue for the client? That simple thought exercise has allowed the best ideas to float to the time while bad ideas are filtered out quickly. We don\u2019t obsess over the tiny details, we get the project done and measure results \u2013 if it\u2019s working we\u2019ll revisit and \u201cperfect\u201d the strategy.<\/p>\n
Build a Brand with a Personality<\/strong><\/h2>\nThis one is huge. It\u2019s 2019, people don\u2019t want to give business to faceless entities anymore unless you\u2019re Amazon (*note \u2013 you\u2019re not Amazon). To truly separate yourself you must create a brand, not just a \u201crevenue stream with a trackable ROAS\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Personality-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
When we work with big, reputable brands (i.e. \u2013 Peter Millar or Fleet Feet) we find they\u2019re able to achieve a MUCH higher ROAS on their Google Shopping spend because of their brand recognition. This is sometimes 2-3-4x what we see with other clients. Creating a brand works. Customer service matters<\/em><\/strong>. Stop looking at what you\u2019re \u201cwasting\u201d by focusing on branding efforts and start thinking about creating something that people love<\/strong>.<\/p>\nSure, you can grow a business by just focusing on the numbers \u2013 but that\u2019s what you hire us for. We can perform much better when you create a brand that people want to follow and engage with.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The problem here is two-fold:<\/p>\n
- \n
- As you\u2019ll see is a central theme of this article, Digital Marketing changes extremely rapidly. Most businesses don\u2019t explode overnight (even the ones we say do take years). Digital Marketing has likely already evolved heavily by the time the business hits the medium size.<\/li>\n
- You\u2019re limiting new ideas. Nobody has all the answers no matter how much experience you\u2019ve got. Hire people that are smarter than you and trust them to be experts at their craft.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Once the business gets to a certain size, leadership must start taking \u201csteps back\u201d and organizing strategy, focusing on prioritization and seeing the whole forest without focusing on the weeds. This transition might be very difficult for some.<\/p>\n
Too Many Meetings<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The worst aspect holding many medium sized companies back is the fact that they\u2019ve started having too many meetings. Hey Jerry, let\u2019s have a meeting about our meeting and then we\u2019ll do a follow up meeting to discuss that second meeting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nYikes. Stop it.<\/p>\n
Communication is crucial (as you\u2019ll see below) but useless, over the top communication can be killer to your bottom line. Every meeting should have a super simple, top-level agenda. Keep it on topic and form a clear list of action items out of the call. If everyone leaves the call with nothing to do and no accountability, it was likely a wasted call.<\/p>\n
We use Monday.com as our task management software here, and slack for communication. If it were up to me I\u2019d never have any calls\u2026..ever. I hate them. There\u2019s wasted time sitting waiting for someone to join, awkward back and forth delays sometimes, intros and conclusions, banter, emotional debates that waste tons of time, etc., etc. It\u2019s just too easy to waste a LOT of time on a call.<\/p>\n
But using a task management software and simply logging \/ discussing tasks in there, and slack to quickly message someone if you need help? Super quick, easy, and saves a ton of time. I recommend you take the time to truly evaluate the number of meetings your team has every week. Are they truly all necessary?<\/p>\n
Progress over Perfection<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Digital Marketing stops for nobody; thus, we preach progress over perfection here. Don\u2019t get me wrong, this doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t provide a high quality of work. We just believe in the 80\/20 rule; what\u2019s going to provide the most value in the least amount of time? In Digital Marketing there is never any shortage of ideas, there are almost an unlimited number of strategies and channels you can be utilizing to improve your business. The best companies aren\u2019t obsessing over one strategy, they\u2019re trying more at once than you and finding the best ones more quickly.<\/p>\n
Fail fast and cheap, move on to the next strategy, and when you find what works pour resources into it until you\u2019ve tapped it out. If you get stuck trying to perfect one little thing, you\u2019re losing valuable time that could be spent finding the true, winning strategy that drives more revenue to the business.<\/p>\n
One of the things we do here is try to have every employee think about the value they\u2019re driving to our clients. Are we doing a project because there is some need to see it done that way, or because we truly believe it will drive $X more revenue for the client? That simple thought exercise has allowed the best ideas to float to the time while bad ideas are filtered out quickly. We don\u2019t obsess over the tiny details, we get the project done and measure results \u2013 if it\u2019s working we\u2019ll revisit and \u201cperfect\u201d the strategy.<\/p>\n
Build a Brand with a Personality<\/strong><\/h2>\n
This one is huge. It\u2019s 2019, people don\u2019t want to give business to faceless entities anymore unless you\u2019re Amazon (*note \u2013 you\u2019re not Amazon). To truly separate yourself you must create a brand, not just a \u201crevenue stream with a trackable ROAS\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nWhen we work with big, reputable brands (i.e. \u2013 Peter Millar or Fleet Feet) we find they\u2019re able to achieve a MUCH higher ROAS on their Google Shopping spend because of their brand recognition. This is sometimes 2-3-4x what we see with other clients. Creating a brand works. Customer service matters<\/em><\/strong>. Stop looking at what you\u2019re \u201cwasting\u201d by focusing on branding efforts and start thinking about creating something that people love<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Sure, you can grow a business by just focusing on the numbers \u2013 but that\u2019s what you hire us for. We can perform much better when you create a brand that people want to follow and engage with.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Communication-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalposition.com\/resources\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Startups-Fail-1.png\")
<\/p>\n