Startup Revolution

Without revenue a small business is just a hobby.

Typical small business marketing follows a path of diminishing returns. 

Great Curatti.com post by @CogentCoach Michael Nelson. Agree, " Without revenue a small business is just a hobby." Also agree, " Typical small business marketing follows a path of diminishing returns", but have a thought to add there. 

Michael discusses the diminishing returns of a reference network that slowly decays out (from previous employer). Diminish returns also applies to many things Small to Medium Sized Business do to "advertise" their business. 

All the networking, advertising and hand wringing a SMB does WITHOUT a viable website / blog is diminished by more than half. The ONLY way to assure what you did today GROWS is to create a "getting bigger everyday" online presence (period, full stop). 

Important to find marketing that produces the opposite of "diminishing returns', marketing where you get MORE back from less effort over time. Michael describes this well too:

This saturation and frequency of use make digital marketing a great option for marketing and building relationships with your prospects and clients.

"While digital marketing is a great option, it is a confusing milieu of platforms, services, tools, etc.  Rather than chasing about trying to do a bit of everything, it’s best to create a system and measure your results.  When you get comfortable, you can add a bit more or expand your reach with your system."

"Create a system" or as P&G taught me all those years ago, "Work your plan" is important. Here are some tips for that system:

* Do a core set of activities DAILY.

* Always reserve 20% (or so) of your time to test new ideas, tools, websites, and partners. 
* Reserve another 20% of your time to respond to and curate content from your previously shared content. 
* Follow people who help you (since it is an online Thank You Note) and follow people you can learn from. 
* Keep life and business in balance and don't get discouraged since it can take months or a year before content marketing begins to scale. 
* Don't worry about "breaking" anything. Internet marketing is like building sand castles on the beach and the tide is always about to come in. 
* Learn to SURF trends, don't try and wrestle them. 

Great post and YES you must build a viable, sustainable and growing Digital Marketing Ecosystem if you want to do anything these days. 
Marty