While putting all your eggs in one basket is a road to failure in many forms of investments, when it comes to your own business it’s not always a problem. In fact if you diversify parts of your business it could become far more expensive than if you just stuck to one thing.
This may sound like a shock to many, so let me explain, because it’s actually quite a simple idea that you probably practice yourself. Let’s get straight to the point.
Every dollar left in the business and used to purchase equipment, advertising, business/marketing advice, legal help, pay your staff etc, is technically an investment. Isn’t it? So as a business owner you have control over where to invest your money between all the areas which might need extra cash. Balancing which part of the business to invest in is an art and a science in its own right. Your accountant and your board of directors will be able to help with this.
This article is about something more important, which is better illustrated with an example.
Imagine you want to purchase (or rather, invest in) new equipment. You go to the market and review your options, then make a decision based on many factors.
What if you later decide you need two pieces of equipment? After all the hard work you did choosing your last machine, chances are you will get a second one from the same place without being anywhere near as diligent as the first time round.
And that’s understandable, why would you get both pieces of equipment from two different brands? Most of the time it makes no sense. Two different brands, means two different types of equipment, your people have to be trained twice, you have to deal with two lots of support personnel, you also might end up paying more for servicing two machines by two different companies. In one word: extra overheads which are impossible to justify in most cases.
Same goes for computers, software, etc.
What about business advise? Consultancy, coaching, marketing, etc.
It used to be in vogue to have your marketing taken care of by five different companies. You’d have someone for your website, someone for SEO, a third for digital, another for content, and a final one who did your strategy before everyone else came on the scene.
This may sound like you’re getting the best of every individuals skillsets. But the reality is far from this. It’s a case of you can have every piece optimised but the final product fails to deliver results.
If you look at this as diversifying your investment – i.e. choosing to not put all your eggs in one basket, then you will get the following very poor and rather costly results:
- New or existing brand is not applied or not even used on the new shiny website, even the colour scheme could be different
- Website message differs from Adwords, because the keywords analysis was not taken into consideration at all during website creation
- Website content has no correlation to SEO and keywords analysis because the copywriter didn’t consider this
- Sales script is way different from website message and from product description in the brochure
- Ad hoc advertising in calendars or in print is completely different from the brand, website and social media
- And social media paints the business as a completely different entity
- Lastly the marketing strategy, especially when done by an outside consultant, is suggesting something completely different again, which is often ignored and not implemented because it’s been forgotten, was too costly or not important enough to be done.
It’s unlikely that a company would have all of the above going on at once, but it does happen. Often times there are at least a couple of the above in every business.
This is an observation only and a sad one at that because in an attempt to avoid jacks-of-all-trades, businesses end up working with highly specialised professionals who aren’t always able to act holistically with respect to everyone else. Business owners have a choice with how to deal with this:
- Either stay strong and use one document, a marketing strategy, as the foundation for everything that will get done by other specialists
- Do business as usual, spread their eggs in many baskets and settle for a varied and sometimes inconsistent representation of their company in different channels
- Find a generalist with ideas and values aligned with their own, choose to keep all their eggs in one basket for the sake of consistent representation of the company, a consistent message, and well-orchestrated marketing effort. Then reap the rewards which only a consistent message can deliver.
Maybe I’m preaching to the converted, but that’s not what we witness on a daily basis.
We ourselves aren’t perfect at doing this, but we understand the challenge and are working to be better every time we do marketing for ourselves. We are working on a new message about us.
This message will be based on the fact that we are generalists representing holistic, action-oriented marketing fundamentals. Which are handpicked for each company based on their current position. Yes, we cover all of the below and actually more to ensure your company has a consistent voice, consistent representation, and the same tested powerful message.
- Target
- Connect
- Follow Up
- Support Sale
If you want to learn more, book in a no obligation consult with one of our specialists.
