This past month, I traveled in an airplane for the first time in more than 20 months, as Marketing Nice Guys was invited to speak at the Small Business Expo in Chicago. Because of my work schedule, it was going to be a quick trip – get in the evening before and then leave right after our speaking engagement the next day.

At least that was the plan.

When I got to Regan National, the United flight was on-time and we were just about to board for the scheduled departure of 5:45 p.m., when it was announced that weather in Chicago would delay the plane. We were told the departure would be pushed back by an hour, then another hour, then another after that. By the time we finally left it was about 11:45. When we arrived in Chicago around 12:20 a.m. (6 hours later than our scheduled arrival time), the taxi lines and Uber wait times were super long (even at that hour) as many others had been similarly delayed. I got to the hotel by 1:30 a.m.

Tired? Yes, but I arrived in one piece. And outside of the guy in the hotel room next to me screaming at his girlfriend through phone, I did finally manage to fall asleep by 2:30 a.m. We presented the next day in front of a relatively full room and had a good reception and feedback to our content.

We were happy.

In the end, the outcome was a good one. Certainly, it was frustrating to not take off on time or get there with additional hours to relax in the city a bit. But in the bigger picture, very few things happen on the timetable any of us want.

The moral: Sometimes, you have to be patient.  The same is true in marketing.

The ‘I-Want-Success-Now’ Marketing Mentality

And look, we know the word “patience” is not something any small business wants to hear when it comes to spending resources on marketing. After all, who doesn’t want results right now, especially when it comes to paid media or other marketing efforts? But not all marketing channels are about producing results today. In fact, for many marketing channels, the focus is rarely on anything but long-term awareness. That’s right. Long. Term. Awareness. Consider the following common marketing channels used by small businesses:

• • Content marketing (blogs, articles, video, podcasts)
  • Paid video ads
  • Paid display ads
  • Native ads
  • Organic social media
  • Paid social media ads

There are exceptions to this[1], but for the most part, none of these activities are meant to convert individuals right now. That’s right. Not even paid media ads, which many small businesses mistakenly assume will convert immediately – (rarely do they actually result in that ideal type of behavior). That’s because it’s not how buyer behavior really works. 

Oftentimes, it takes many touches for customers to convert to a particular product or service. The average today is still 7 to 14 touches before the average customer purchases anything. And only if you’re pushing your brand in front of audiences consistently, will they often make the move to demonstrate an intent to buy.

Consumer Behavior and Understanding Marketing Attribution

To illustrate this, think about your own consumer behavior for a second. Perhaps you seen an ad for a new product or service on social media. Maybe you click on it, visit the site, but don’t have any intention of converting right then and there. Maybe, as a result of your action (visiting the website), a good marketer for the company retargets you again with another ad. You see the ad but this time don’t click on. Maybe weeks later, another ad shows up. Maybe, around the same time, your friend tells you about this same company, and it makes you say, “Hmmm…OK, I’ll get on the company’s newsletter list.” The company sends you an email the next month with an offer. You click on it but don’t convert. You do check out more pages of the website though. Finally, you find yourself actually needing the product the company sells, maybe a few weeks later, so you do a search for the company in Google and you end up purchasing a product after clicking on its organic listing. That’s actually a common scenario (and one reason you see organic search being one of the top conversion mechanisms) in your analytics data.

Indeed, if you just look at analytics without any attribution attached, it seems like organic search is your top performer and the ads didn’t perform at all. After all, none of the ads converted directly. But the truth is, your conversion wouldn’t have happened unless you actually put out those ads months earlier to start with. And it was probably the most important touch point – how you as a customer first became aware of the company.

That’s how marketing often REALLY works. It’s a system with each piece contributing to move a potential customer toward the intent to buy. Note in our example above, it took months for that scenario to play out. And that’s not uncommon either. Just think if you, as a small business, saw that your ads were only getting impressions or clicks but no direct conversions, you decided to stop it. In the scenario above, you’d be cutting off potential business because you aren’t making individuals aware with that initial touch. Because you didn’t have any patience.

What If You Don’t Have the Luxury of Being Patient?

We get it. Some companies need those conversions now. They may not have months, they may only have this month. What can you do? Here are a few recommendations we’d throw out there:

• • Focus your immediate-term marketing efforts on potential customers that show intent to purchase or are already aware of your brand. Typically, these individuals are found by:
    • Paid Google search ads listings (where you can identify customers searching for solutions – by the keywords they use.)
    • Email: If they’re already on your newsletter list and you’ve acquired them, they are already past the awareness stage. Note: This is also a great way to follow up with existing customers, who might re-purchase or advocate for your products and services to their network.
    • Ad retargeting: Pushing ads in front of individuals who already have visited your website or are already on your email list is another way to get those who “may be” closer to purchase. The same caveat goes with what we mention above, however, with many of the ads.
    • Amazon: Some small businesses we know sell products on Amazon. And refocusing efforts there can help you get in front of people who are already in ‘buying’ mode.

• • Balance these short-term efforts with some investment in the awareness stage. Finding only those who are ready to buy now is fine, but you may end up with a situation where you’re not going to necessarily grow the brand or your sales all that much. That’s why regardless of the marketing channels you might choose in this area (paid ads, content, social media etc.) it’s worth investing some resources here so you can boost your long-term growth as well.

Conclusion

As it turned out, our return trip back from Chicago was also delayed at multiple points. An accident on the road to the airport, weather delays, and even a change of the in-flight crew. We ended up getting back 7 hours later than expected. But the point is, we eventually made it and all it required was a little patience. Similarly, give your marketing time to work as well. It’s never as fast as you may want but if you keep at it, we think you’ll see results. And you’ll be happy you waited it out.

At Marketing Nice Guys, our mission is to help you excel in digital marketing. Contact us for a free consultation in content & SEO, website design and development, paid media, marketing automation, and social media management.

[1] The exception might be a B2C retail business that does paid ads for a impulse-buy type of product where upon seeing the ad, people will just want to convert. But this is a rare case among all small business marketing opportunities.