I love automation in business. I love creating something that we can use for years to come. And I wish that we could create a flawless marketing plan, get it running and then sit back to enjoy the fruits of our labors for as long as we are in business.
However that would be a very costly mistake. In order to get the least expensive leads, we need to be aware of our marketing cycles.
There are three phases to the marketing cycle.
Phase 1: The Build
The build phase of the marketing cycle is where you introduce the new campaign. It will take some time to settle into it’s pattern. If you are running a promotion through Facebook ads for example, this is where you are testing and working to get the cost per lead down to an acceptable range. If you are running a promotion 
through your existing customer base, you may not get outstanding results from the get go. Your customers are getting familiar with the new system. You will also have kinks to work out. You’ll need to tweak and find ways to improve the strategy. Don’t abandon your marketing campaign too soon. What you are looking for in this phase is improvement. And an upswing in number of leads while driving down the cost.
Phase 2: The Peak
The Peak phase of the marketing cycle is the golden era. This is when leads flow in, costs stay consistent. The management is consistent because all bugs have been worked out. We hope this phase will last forever. But the reality is it will come to an end! While we are in this phase we want to bring as many people through as we can.
Phase 3: The Decline
The Decline phase of the marketing cycle will happen when the people get fatigued with your campaign. Lead volume will start to decrease. Cost per lead will start to increase. This is the time when you want to introduce your next marketing campaign and wrap up the current one.
Here are some common mistakes I see business owners make.
- The owner gives a strong launch, but when they don’t’ see immediate results, they get frustrated and move on too quickly.
- When a campaign starts to decline, the business owner just keeps putting money into it. They think it must be a change in the economy, or that people are just busy. Meanwhile results in the business suffer and the business owner just feels like it’s a season of “bad business.” They are too slow to adjust the marketing strategy.
Humans are cyclical. Business is cyclical. Marketing cycles are also, you guessed it, cyclical. If you had a very successful campaign that seems to be in the decline, pull it out for a season and then re-introduce. Think of the Disney Vault system. There is no reason they need to pull movies out of circulation other than they want the increased sales when they bring them back. Look at Holiday marketing. It feels nostalgic to see those first Coca-Cola polar bear ads in November. But by January, we are ready to be onto something else.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard business owners complain about this without understanding that their business is just following a normal cycle! “It worked great when we launched it, but after a few months, people just lost interest.” That my friends is not a failed marketing campaign! It is in fact, a healthy marketing cycle.
If you would like assistance in building a marketing plan that accounts for the cycles and always keeps you in the flow of new leads, consider attending one of our CEO Circle’s in 2017. This is a 2-3 day intense workshop and you will leave with your marketing, sales, and leadership plans in hand.