Whether you’ve owned your own productivity and organizing business for a day or a decade, marketing that business never gets easier. With the constant shifts in technologies, platforms and channels – it’s hard to know where to put your marketing efforts or budget.

That’s why we invited national marketing expert Drew McLellan onto the NAPO podcast, Stand Out: Growing Your Organizing & Productivity Business. Drew has worked in advertising for 30+ years and started his own agency, McLellan Marketing Group in 1995 after a five-year stint at one of the world’s largest agencies, Young & Rubicam. His agency has helped local, regional and national clients over the years and McLellan is often asked to speak at conferences on marketing trends and best practices.

So that’s where the conversation between Drew and Stand Out podcast host Sarah Karakaian began. Drew talked about how good marketing comes after you understand exactly what your business’ focus/area is and isn’t and who your sweet spot clients are. “When you know who your audience is, you can narrow the conversation so you only talk about what truly matters to them. That captures and keeps their attention,” he reminded the listeners.

He went on to say that when it comes to marketing, casting too wide of a net simply means you are going to catch a lot of prospects or client that you really do not want and that every client is not a good client. Especially when someone is just starting off and they need to generate revenue, they believe that any dollar is a good dollar. But as your business matures, you quickly learn that earning some dollars actually costs you a great deal more.

McLellan offered some sage advice for 2018. “Do fewer things but do them more often and better. Three marketing tactics delivered with consistency and excellence beats 10 tactics any day.” He went on to say that how marketing is constant seed planting. “You just keep scattering them about because you don’t know which ones will take root. When we talk to clients, we tell them that they’re the Johnny Appleseed of their business.”

The conversation shifted to the importance of the web today and McLellan reminded listeners that if they only have time to pay attention to one aspect of their marketing, it should be their own website. That’s the workhorse for any business today and we also need to make sure it is mobile friendly because a large portion of search is being done on mobile devices today.

Drew and Sarah talked about social channels, the importance of consistency and how critical it is that your marketing reflect who you are and what you’re all about. If your marketing is inconsistent with how you come across when they finally meet you in person, that can destroy any chance of working together. In the end, marketing is about creating trust.

“Remember that to buy something, people have to know, like and trust you. They have to know who we are; they have to like us; and they have to trust us whether they’re buying a tube of toothpaste or a car.”

Drew’s writing has appeared in Forbes, The Washington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, New York Times, CNN, BusinessWeek, and many others. The Wall Street Journal calls him “one of 10 bloggers every entrepreneur should read.”  His favorite topics include all things marketing and entrepreneurial, being a dad and how the Los Angeles Dodgers keep breaking his heart.