Kelford Labs Daily: Proportionate Marketing
Too much marketing won’t help.
“A quantity grows exponentially when its increase is proportional to what is already there.”
— Donella Meadows, Limits to Growth
So much marketing I see out in the world is out of proportion to the business it’s supporting.
From solopreneurs spending all day posting on LinkedIn to small businesses buying billboards, it’s all a symptom of the same thing:
A lack of focus.
The simple fact is that if a business is spending more time or money on marketing than it is delivering its value to its clients, it will always struggle.
Because that level of investment indicates that the business is not growing organically—its reputation isn’t growing, only its spending.
But if we’re focused, specialized, and targeted at the clients and customers who value us most, a little marketing will do.
Because those customers will tell others. We’ll become known as extraordinarily credible in our field. Our reputation will extend and precede us.
On the other hand, if it takes dozens of hours posting on social or creating content to generate a single lead, the marketing isn’t working and simply doing more won’t help. The offering is too scattered, varied, and confusing.
The messaging is too unclear, unspecialized, and unqualified.
Instead, to keep our marketing proportionate to our business, we need to focus on one message, for one customer, in one way.
When we do that, we can do so much less. Our marketing can be proportionate to our business.
And it can grow with us, not beyond us.
