The word “Holistic” by itself means that you are considering and understanding all the components of something. When you combine this idea with marketing, you get a wonderful experience in which none of your efforts are siloed. Each aspect of your business is interconnected in order for your efforts to get more mileage and for your time and money to work harder for you. This is an existing practice, yet it is also an often underused tactic.
A Chaotic Scene
For many small businesses, having a complete in-house marketing department is not possible, so they turn to vendors, consultants, and freelancers who can push out marketing efforts without taking on the expense and time to build out an internal team. There is nothing innately wrong with this; however, more often than not, these external team members are only concerned about the specific piece they are working on. They do not always consider the business goals, sales efforts, or upcoming deals that the internal team members are working on day-in and day-out. Worse yet, they rarely take the time to develop an all-encompassing marketing strategy or even a solid tracking system!
This often results in entrepreneurs and small businesses getting frustrated with external resources because they do not have the level of insight they desire. Since they are trying to manage multiple resources, ultimately playing the “middle-man,” they can very easily find themselves not focusing on their core responsibilities. There needs to be a better way.
Cleaning Up Marketing Efforts
When you approach marketing in a holistic fashion, you ensure that none of your efforts are siloed. Lines of communication are opened between internal and external resources, and everyone is aware of the business goals and marketing strategies, ensuring that all efforts are working together efficiently. It may sound like more work, but it often makes business owner’s lives easier because as they say, “You need to work smarter, not harder.”
Being holistic does not mean that one person is doing everything, but rather, it means everyone is working together. This often works best when everything is laid out on the table and everyone is working off the same project management software or tracking system and there are periodic check-ins for internal and external parties to get together and report back on progress. However, the biggest factors are establishing your goals and assigning responsibility, so that everyone is on the same page.
Initially, this can seem daunting, but your efforts and your results will pay-off. You will end up saving yourself several headaches and eventually free up your schedule to continue to work towards growing your business.
That is the approach that we take at Holistic Marketing LLC. We start with a goals and efforts assessment and site audit. After that, we provide a recap of our findings and recommendations for moving forward. All recommendations are tied to the stated goals and best practices, so we will not be making grandiose suggestions. Furthermore, everything we do is tracked and reported on a regular basis. We pride ourselves on being transparent, collaborative, and providing genuine value.
So, my question for you is, are you addressing your marketing in a holistic manner? Learn more about Holistic Marketing LLC here.