I’ve never believed in the wisdom of using one-off marketing activities. They are rarely effective because they don’t allow the benefit of being perfected through repetition.
It’s easy to try something once and, if unsuccessful, drop it and say it’s ineffective.
However, by doing each activity multiple times and testing a slightly different approach with each attempt, you gain the ability to understand what does and does not work. I am a big believer in having good process rather than relying on talent, luck or other variables.
Business operations frequently use a discipline known as Process Based Management.
Take, for example, McDonalds, the undisputed leaders in the fast food industry. They are quick, cheap, and effective and they can provide you with the same experience no matter where you are located. This is because they have a process. They have defined exactly what should happen when a customer enters or drives up and orders food, as well as how each order is cooked, how it’s packaged, and how it’s given to the customer.
Process-based marketing is a discipline that consists of predefined and repeatable actions that are designed to achieve a specific goal.
We use process-based marketing. Our services are based on a process that happens every single month. We have two sets of processes: one intended to increase website traffic, and the other to increase conversions.
Each set contains components that have a specific process. For example, to drive traffic we use SEO, Paid Search, and Facebook Ad campaigns. To convert traffic, we use analytics, email marketing, landing pages, etc.
The biggest advantage of process-based marketing is the ease with which you can make improvements to the process. Take landing-page development as an example.
The development process uses the following steps:
These steps are repeated every month for the required number of landing pages. If there is an issue with one of the steps, we can fix that particular step. If the overall process needs to be improved, we look at each step individually to find areas of potential improvement.
If you have a new employee starting at your company, you will know exactly where that person will fit into your process and what to expect from them. For example, last week we had a new writer starting with us. Meg, our Senior Editor, was able to onboard and coach the new writer quickly because she knows how the process works.
Like any business process, process-based marketing is scalable. Once you have the right process and the right people in place, each step becomes more predictable and effective.
You no longer need to reinvent the wheel; everything fits right in.
To scale your operation, you can use the same steps, but increase or decrease the frequency or quantity as appropriate. Only the details will change; the core will remain the same.
Process-based marketing is ongoing and has to happen in your business if you wish to produce tangible results. Best of all, it becomes better with constant improvement and can easily be scaled to meet changes that arise. For the most effective promotion strategies, do not rely on one-off marketing activities.
