Prairie dogs are cute little animals who are often found happily digging away underground. Their signature move is suddenly popping up out of their burrows when they sense danger or to scan for predators. It’s a great strategy for prairie dogs. Not so much for marketers.
In my line of work, I often come across “prairie dog marketers” — people who pop up to market only when a new competitor enters the space or does something interesting. Once they’ve done enough, they go back into their burrow to focus on “real” work and leave the marketing for another day.
This strategy may work for a little while, but it will never lead to long-term success. Marketing can’t only be done when you feel like it, when there’s a new trend, or when you’re falling behind. One example that seems to make sense to people is the idea of losing weight. Everyone knows that exercising and eating right is the best strategy, but if you only do it for a month or two, you won’t get very far. The same goes for marketing: consistency is key.
Don’t fall into the prairie dog marketing trap. Be on the lookout for these warning signs that you need more consistency in your marketing plan:
Nothing seems to be working.
If every strategy you try seems to fail, it might not be the strategies themselves — they could just need more time to work. If you’re constantly dabbling in new things and quitting a few months in, you’ll never know what would have been a success. You won’t have enough data to measure, and you won’t be able to compare over time. Even if a strategy really wasn’t working, maybe all it needed was a small tweak rather than a complete abandonment. Sticking with strategies for awhile helps you know for sure whether they’re successful.
You don’t have many engaged followers.
Engagement goes hand in hand with consistency. Your followers will notice if your social media strategy is constantly changing, or if you’re only active on social media in short bursts. People like to follow and interact with accounts that share informative content in an interesting way, and if you’re not doing that regularly, your follower count and engagement will probably stay stagnant. Consistently posting on social media, even if you’re not posting the most groundbreaking content, can help with engagement.
Your leads are falling off.
One place where a lack of consistency will quickly become apparent is lead generation. If you stop marketing leads will stop coming. This should be a big red flag because without leads, you don’t have a business. Frantically marketing only when you need new business isn’t going to cut it, so it’s critical that it’s part of your day-to-day plan. If you’re recommitting to marketing consistency, this is the place to start.
