I was driving behind a person the other day who clearly did not know where they were going. They would speed up and then abruptly hit the brakes, creep at barely a crawl and then speed up again. Have you driven behind someone like this who operates their vehicle in spurts and stops? I wanted to shout out the window, "Figure out where you are going before you start driving!”

That could be excellent advice for your marketing too. I have worked with many people to promote their brand over my career in marketing. I have run into people who are all in on a marketing campaign and cannot get it to go fast enough, only to bring it to an abrupt stop after a short time. What is the matter with that kind of spurt-and-stop approach to marketing? The big problem is it doesn’t work to promote your brand effectively. The best thing you can do in marketing is to keep a consistent and persistent message in front of your target market. Breaking up your message sporadically has the same effect as taking a shower with a squirt gun. People will find your marketing more annoying than useful and, worse yet, forget your brand.

Most of the time when a company is spurting and stopping, it shows a lack of planning in marketing. Right now is a great time to make marketing plans for next year. Take some time and evaluate your past marketing. What has worked and what has not? Appraise what your target market needs from you. That may have changed over time. What you did to impress them at one time may not work any longer. Weigh their needs against what your competition is doing for them. What would make you stand out from your competition and make you a hero in the eyes of your customers? Build a marketing plan around that idea. Does that sound too simple to work? Keep in mind that features like power windows and air conditioning were once promoted as something new and innovative in automobile marketing. Now they are basic features and no one is marketing them as something new. Did that mean that car manufacturers hit the brakes on their marketing when this didn’t work any longer? Of course not! They promoted something new. What sells a car today? Mobile communication. Cars are now sold on connectivity with your mobile devices. They have smart safety systems – remote tracking and anti-theft apps that can monitor everywhere the vehicle travels and bring it to a stop it with a phone. They have safe driving systems that monitor anything approaching the car. They are equipped with voice-activated AI to access anything you desire without taking your hands off the wheel. And when these all become commonplace, there will be another feature that takes precedence in the marketing of cars. The same is true of your marketing.

Don’t let your marketing spurt and stop. Make your marketing work for you by planning now for next year. Don’t just play the same old marketing tricks again. Come up with something new based on what you know about your target market.