How much of your ego is in your advertising? Is your ego helping or is it drowning your marketing?

Being an entrepreneur means you had to make some tough decisions. Not all of them always easy. Many extremely hard to make.

This means you had to be tough. It also means you have learned some hard lessons. Especially on what works and what does not work for your business.

Some of the harder lessons are found in marketing. You have spent money and seen no return on it. You hired a professional designer, got input from people in the office, compared it to other advertisements and you spend a considerable amount of time getting it just right.

Then nothing. No phone calls. No emails. No customers. They said consider this a branding exercise.

Your website is another one of these. You had to give information about products, services, the company, decide on the colour scheme, a bunch of images and more.

After the dust settles it DID not WORK!

This helped you decide THIS does not work. Anyone saying anything different does not know what they are talking about.

The business people I have met who are extremely successful have learned one key skill. This is probably one of THE most important skills you need. It is also EXTREMELY hard to master.

Do you know what this skills is?

It is the skill to not let your ego drive your decisions. It is not easy to master this skill. You need focus here. Deep emotions must be calmed.

I have seen MANY business owners where their EGO gets in the way of their marketing. They want it a certain way (a way which does not work).

I have been humbled many times when we test.

What we think does not count. What counts is what your clients will pay money for.

That is the real vote on anything. Especially the marketing you do.

Do you really care how it “looks” like IF it generates clients consistently?

Here is a practical example for you. The background of a website. Do you know how the background changes of websites came about?

At the start of website design, one of the choices was the width of the site. Most decided on 600 or maybe 800. This was due to screen size. Most people had a 14-inch screen. This meant the site fitted perfectly.

Designers started using bigger screens, 17 – 20 inch. This meant when they worked on websites they saw this BIG white canvas at the back of the site. At first it was just a color. Then a picture. This is how background color and images for sites started.

What is the problem having a picture as background on a site?

In 99% of cases it DISTRACTS from the sale to be made. It takes the focus away.

There are very good reasons newspapers have black words on white paper. It reads easier. The moment you have something at the back, it distracts from the reading. It does not enhance it.

Next time you are working on your marketing, stop for a minute and think if your EGO is getting in the way of your marketing. Is it enhancing your marketing of getting in the way?

Test your marketing ideas. Make changes. Find what works. Test. Measure your results.

Let data help you make better, more informed decisions.