We Need Marketing Results Now

We Need Marketing Results Now

If you have ever said, "We need marketing results now, not a long-term plan, you're not alone. Many business owners feel that urgency. You've got payroll to meet, clients to serve, and growth targets that aren't going to wait. But here's the thing. That urgency comes from being burned before. You've probably tried marketing the promised quick wins, only to end up back at square one, six months later. The fastest path to results isn't another quick fix. It's building the right foundation so you never have to start over again. That's what I'm going to break down in today's episode.

Hi, I am Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing, where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult, and it definitely shouldn't be guesswork. Thank you so much for taking the time to tune in today. Really excited to dig into this with you.

Chasing Quick Results

So the first thing that we need to cover to really start breaking this down is, why are we chasing quick results? Why do we do that? As humans, we're wired for short term gratification, which I think is at the base of that. But why do we chase quick results? As business owners, often we are reacting to pressure, not strategy. We feel that pressure, and then we feel the need to react and take action. Urgency is fueled by frustration from failed efforts. We've wasted money. We've had low return on investment. We've had agencies that over-promised and under-delivered. Emotionally, this comes from a mix of fatigue, doubt, frustration, and fear of standing still. As business owners, one of the things most of us want to do is grow our business. We don't want to stand still. And we have a fear when we feel like we're in that place. But when we're chasing quick results, it's like slapping a turbo onto a car without an engine. That you've been maintaining. So you haven't been maintaining the engine, but you're like, Man, it needs to perform better. I'm just going to put a turbo on it. Well, you might get a quick burst, but it's not going to last. Short-term thinking feels safe, but it's often what keeps us stuck. Because short-term decisions often get in the way of long-term results. Those short term decisions negatively impact long term benefits. We see this time and time and time again.

The Real Marketing Problem

So what's the real problem? The real problem is random acts of marketing. When we're chasing quick results, we're throwing stuff up against a wall, hoping that it's going to stick. Most businesses aren't failing because of bad tactics, but because those tactics aren't connected to a clear strategy and plan. Things are missing or out of alignment, and that's why the tactics fail. That's why these random acts that we just throw up against a wall and hope they stick, don't. Without strategy, which is your fuel, without planning, which are the parts, right? That we use to assemble that engine, and without leadership, which is a mechanic, to maintain and optimize that engine, marketing just stays unpredictable. It goes from one random act to the next. And random acts of marketing drain time, they drain money, and they drain energy. One week you're posting on LinkedIn, the next you're running a few ads, then you're sending out an email blast. They're all disconnected and disjointed. They're not working together in harmony. It's just busy work. It's not progress. Your urgency is exactly why you need to take the time to build a marketing engine, to build a system that's going to drive consistent distant, predictable revenue growth. Random tactics might get you a lead here or there, but they'll leave you starting from scratch next month. What I find is most businesses feel like they have a lead generation problem. They think that it's leads that they need, but it's not. They actually have a marketing engine problem. That's what's actually going on.

What Gets Results Fast

So what actually gets results fast? What kinds of things do we need to focus on? Let me break down a few things to think about here. The businesses that take 90 days, 60, 90 days to build a foundation, start getting consistent results faster. While we're taking that time to build that foundation, foundation. It doesn't mean that you can't do things to try and generate quicker wins. There are always quick win opportunities. So one of the things that we always look at when we focus on building a marketing engine is where are the quick win opportunities? Let's work on quick wins simultaneously while we're building the foundation, while we're nailing the fundamentals that are going to fuel our growth long term. I already touched on this, but the marketing engine framework, a simple one that we follow, focuses on three core components: strategy, planning, and leadership. And they're all working together. Strategy is the fuel. Planning is what marketing tactics and channels are we going to leverage? Those are the parts that we use to assemble your engine. And then leadership as a mechanic. Okay, either we can help clients do that, or we can guide you and your team, but somebody has to take that mechanic role to maintain the engine and to optimize it on an ongoing basis. Okay, so for example, once you define your ideal clients and the message you're going to use and leverage to attract and engage those people, and you put a simple 90-day plan around it, then you start to take action, your marketing starts to compound. You stop guessing. You have clarity. You know what to focus on to drive results. That's the foundation. It's not about waiting a year to see results, which, by the way, marketing can take time to see results. So you do need to be patient, but it's about doing the right things in the right order so your results actually stick. But there are always quick wins that you can leverage to generate more immediate results. But you have to have patience. Building an engine does take time. This doesn't happen overnight. And most people quit long before they've given their marketing efforts an opportunity to actually work.

The fastest way to long term success is through building a foundation. Having urgency is understandable. But reactionary marketing keeps you stuck. Random acts of marketing keep you stuck. They burn time, they burn money, they burn energy. You need a simple methodology, a simple framework to build consistent momentum. And that is building a marketing engine. Building a marketing engine doesn't mean slowing down. It means finally getting traction that's going to last and stand the test of time.

Conclusion

So I hope you found this helpful. If you have questions, you can always reach out to us over at rialtomarketing.com. That's rialtomarketing.com. But if you feel like you're doing all the recommended marketing stuff, but you're still not seeing the results you need, you're stuck in the marketing maze. If you want to get your roadmap out, head over to marketingenginescorecard.com to find out exactly what's keeping your marketing engine from delivering consistent growth. Takes less than two minutes, so go do it now. Til next time. Take care.