Skeptical business and organization managers hear marketing pros drone on about websites, using the media, and employing word-of-mouth marketing and often quickly tune out. Those people without a lot of business background, especially, just don't see the point. They often badmouth the system and whine about why they aren't getting the same business their competitors are. Occasionally, though, one out of the crowd will really put forth an effort and ride it out. This is the one who sees the results.

Marketing efforts rarely produce the effect you're looking for overnight. To truly reap the benefits of promotional work, it takes layer upon layer for your message to finally click in your target's mind. It can take time; how much time it takes depends on how much time you have to commit to your marketing. For most business owners, that's not a whole lot of hours out of each week, so the results of the bits-and-pieces efforts they do manage will become evident over time.

I was at an event with a client and friend a few weeks ago. At the event, several people commented about something she had on her business's website. She chatted happily about it but wondered how all these people knew about the details of this upcoming item of business. It took a little while for her to realize they read it on her website. Then, putting together all of the conversations she and I have had about marketing and looking back on my presentations that she's attended, she said to me, "This stuff really works!"

Yes, the things you have on your website, the ones you write press releases about, and the details that people chatter about get noticed. It may take time, but they do get noticed. 

As further testimony, the press release about my Association of Women Business Owners talk was noticed in the Lafayette Leader newspaper by Angie Bowen of the Area IV Agency on Aging. It prompted her to contact me to talk with her group in May.

Yes, this stuff really works.