Today’s blog was written by Sarah Petty, a small business owner (The Joy of Marketing), internationally sought-after speaker, marketing and branding strategist, MBA & co-author of Worth Every Penny: Build a Business that Thrills Your Customers and Still Charge What You’re Worth.

We know running a business can be challenging and we hope you find Sarah’s advice useful.

One of my least favorite words when it comes to marketing a small business is the word “try.” Stemming back to my advertising agency days, clients would come in and say, “I tried this, and I tried that, and nothing worked.” We would always then ask exactly how they “tried.”

Typically, it didn’t take us long to figure out what they did wrong and why they didn’t receive the results they desired. Most of the time, they did things part of the way and didn’t have any consistency. Whether the message, the creative, the production or simply the advertising schedule, they wouldn’t commit the resources it took to make an impact.

Let’s face it, now with online marketing, there are even more ways than ever for marketers to try to enter the mind of the consumer. Whether you like it or not, you are competing against the big dogs when you are promoting your business.

Here are three ways to help you succeed, instead of just trying to succeed.

1. Make a commitment to what you are doing.

So many times, I see small business owners throwing together a half-done promotional idea, such as a postcard. The idea might be there, the message and exciting incentive might be there, but because of time or budget constraints, the decision maker cheapens the decision and throws it out there. I am not surprised that more people aren’t getting better results when they aren’t fully committing to the task.

2. Do less, better.

Instead of trying this and trying that, do fewer things in a better way. I can tell you after many years working in advertising and marketing, there are many different ways you can achieve success. We ran successful radio, newspaper, outdoor, direct mail and even television campaigns with smaller budgets. We found consistency because we focused the budget and did one thing really well.

3. Make an impact.

If you are going to try the same old thing that everyone else is doing, you might as well try to win some money in Las Vegas as your odds might be better. If your marketing efforts don’t make a bang, if they don’t make people pause for a moment, if they don’t make people laugh or cry, you are “trying” it the wrong way.