The One Thing: Why Simpler is Better When it Comes to Your Marketing

Checklists, endless unread messages, a calendar full of appointments – it’s the life of a business owner and many other people working to promote the companies they work for. If this resonates with you, you’ve probably had weeks or months and maybe even years go by when you thought to yourself, what the hell did I even do over the past X number of days? While you worked hard and probably made some money, a number of initiatives you set out to embark upon went untouched.

It’s nothing new. People in business have been experiencing this since before the advent of the Internet. Fortunately, there is a solution. I recently picked up the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller, co-founder of the international realty firm Keller Williams. In the book, Keller talks about his own struggles with overwhelming task lists and numerous distractions, and how this caused an epiphany that lead to the massive success that his company has experienced.

If you are looking for concrete solutions to solving the problems you have in business, you should definitely pick up the book, but in a nutshell, Keller’s answer is to focus on ONLY one thing. He says that people who try to divide their time across multiple initiatives ultimately end up doing a mediocre job at all of them. However, people who narrow their focus on doing one thing extremely well achieve great success and build massive momentum.

So how does this relate to marketing? Simple. When you are communicating with your audience, whether that is via email, an ad in the newspaper, a post on Facebook or a page on your website, you will generate more business if you focus your message on one single outcome. Whether you are soliciting donations for a cause, trying to get people to register for an event or trying to get people to walk through your business’ doors, it is important that you create one single call to action.

By hyper focusing your message you will hyper focus the attention of your audience, causing them to think about doing one single thing. Reducing the number of distractions your audience has is critical for driving more people to take the action that YOU planned for them to take.

Have more to say? That’s perfectly okay. Do it in a different ad, a different email or a different post on Facebook.

Looking for strategy assistance for your online presence? Give me a call. We’ll chat about your current position and your opportunities, and we’ll create a plan that fits your schedule and your budget.