50 marketing mistakes / Mistake #50
Mistake #50 of 50Don’t spend so much time planning that you never actually market.
Close the spreadsheet. Stop changing the font. Stop asking AI for version #37. Send the damn thing.
What it costs you
Planning isn’t marketing.
The plan has a tab for everything.
The email has been rewritten six times. The font has been changed four. AI is on version #37.
It all feels like work. It even looks like work.
But nothing has gone out. And nothing that stays on your computer ever rings the phone.
A plan is a list of things you’re going to do. Marketing is doing them.
A real example
The plan with nine tabs
A dog groomer decides this is the year she gets serious about marketing.
She builds a spreadsheet. A tab for email. A tab for social. A tab for referrals. A tab for a loyalty program. Color-coded, by month.
Then she asks AI for ideas. Then for better ideas. Then she redoes the colors.
Three months later, the spreadsheet has nine tabs. Not one email has gone out. Not one bandana has gone home on a dog.
One Monday morning, she closes it. She texts ten clients who haven’t booked in a while: “Max is due for a trim. Want Thursday?”
By Friday, most of them have booked.
The spreadsheet wasn’t wrong. It just never sent anything.
Why it happens
Why the plan never ends
Asking AI for another 100 ideas is just another way of doing nothing.
Do this instead
Pick one. Do it today.
A plan is only worth something if it tells you what to do this week. Read it, pick one thing and do it before you add anything else.
| Instead of | Do this |
|---|---|
| Rewriting the email again | Send it to ten customers. Fix the next one. |
| Asking AI for more ideas | Read the five you have. Pick one. |
| Changing the font | Run the Good Enough Test. Five yeses? Send it. |
| Building the perfect calendar | Put the next two weeks on your real calendar, like appointments. |
| Waiting for the new logo | Hand out the magnets you already have. |
| Planning the big campaign | Call one old customer. Today. |
Give the plan an hour, not a season. Then close the spreadsheet and send the damn thing.
Do this today
- 1
Open the plan, the spreadsheet or the drafts folder.
- 2
Pick the one thing on it you could finish in ten minutes.
- 3
Do it now. Send it, post it or make the call. Don’t polish it first.
- 4
Put a check mark next to it. Then close the spreadsheet.
One thing done beats nine tabs planned. Send the damn thing.
From the book
Chapter 1: Don’t Just Stand There. Do Something.
Starts on page 8. The whole chapter, plus 250+ ways to market your business, in the free book.
Download the free bookIdeas that fix it
Stop planning. Hand something out.
Idea 2 · book page 262Send a Personal EmailFreeCosts nothing and reaches a real person today.$0Idea 20 · book page 271Build a 90-Day Marketing Calendar With AIFreeTurns 'I should market' into a weekly to-do list.
Idea 134 · book page 328Pet Bandanas$3–$10 eachThe customer literally walks your ad around the neighborhood.
Idea 86 · book page 304Magnets$0.75–$2 eachOn the fridge right when the pipe bursts.
Idea 66 · book page 294Promotional Pens$0.30–$1.50 eachUseful, cheap, and passed from person to person.
Idea 170 · book page 346Premium T-Shirts$8–$20 eachSoft shirts get worn on weekends, not just at work.Want a plan that’s already done, so you can just do it?
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