Marketing isn't a one-off action. You don't 'do' marketing once and then decide it's done and either worked or didn't. Marketing is a wave of activity—it's consistent and ongoing. The same goes for making offers—you don't always have a mad rush sell-out the second you open the 'shop door'.
But what I see all too often is fabulous people, who do brilliant 'Things', opening the door to their business—whether that's an offer, a deal, a new product or service, or just a marketing message—and slamming the door almost straight away if there's no instant sales or reaction.
Not recommended!
Sometimes you need to repeat a message or offer before people even see it, let alone take action. Say only a quarter of people open the emails you send them (a very typical stat) then that means 75% of people you email don't even read what you sent them. Send them another email (or 4) and you might 'up' that percentage significantly (if you assume it's not always the same 25% who open your emails—which it might be!).
Just because you didn't cause a stampede with your offer the minute you mention it, doesn't mean no-one wants to buy. You might need to provide more information, give examples and social proof of it working before you get more buyers. Some products and services are slow burners, that provide consistent and ongoing sales for you, but don't cause a riot. Nothing wrong with that—they still add to your bottom line, just not all at once!
This is especially important to remember when your Thing is new, or the way you do it is new. There may well be a time of 'education' that you need to include in your promotion and marketing to explain how your Thing works and why it has value. You don't always know when the tipping point of adoption or people 'getting it' will happen, but you keep on marketing anyway if you know you have interest.
No interest is another matter of course—you can close the door much sooner if even after a few different versions of your marketing you fail to generate any interest at all. But if there is interest and you KNOW your Thing solves a real problem for people that's needed, then keep going.
Create that wave of marketing that keeps you visible and active in the market and the door to your store wide open, so whenever your market is ready then can stroll in and buy.
Don't dismiss anything you do in business as a failure until you've given it a fair chance. Don't slam doors shut straight after you open them.
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