Most entrepreneurs I’ve ever met are more than willing to throw money at a problem, but few would willingly do so when faced with a dilemma. There are two real life cases in which I’ve found myself in that very situation.

They are both in my immediate past.

It’s a story you are likely familiar with — all the same issues are there: tough to get quality customers, you need better customer service, customer experiences don’t even match your competitors. However, even with all the negative press that your business may be getting, those tough issues continue to exist. It’s not like there’s a breakdown in strategy, the CMO is overmatched, or that a “brand disconnect” is the main issue.

I think it’s safe to say that your problems are not nearly as hopeless as you may think. All you need to do is identify what is going wrong, identify what you are doing wrong, and reverse course.

Even if you’re trying to change for the sake of change, you also need to deal with issues that haven’t been addressed in years.

I’m going to take an extra minute to demonstrate how this solves the problem: if you have a problem with your brand perception, people are blaming your new social media strategy, people are assuming you don’t have the desire to change, the marketing department is totally incompetent, sales is nonexistent, or your customer service department can’t handle the volume, you want to flip the switch, right? But you want to have conversations, be social, say “Buy our product!” and then change course? How?

By generating a steady flow of content that you can reuse across the different channels.

This first video costs a few minutes of your time, and the benefits are well worth it. You don’t even need much equipment. I’m literally just taking a video screen and setting it up in a corner of my office. The results speak for themselves. One day later, an email arrives from a potential customer, and they quote you $5,000. An email that is sent to your entire social network is an emailed to potential customer who can be reached every single day.

It’s a simple idea that pays dividends in time, budget, and certainly more customer referrals.

The YouTube channel has gotten increased traction, and people are finding new ways to use our videos. There’s been increased traction as well on our targeted newsletters and online and in-store events. The feedback we’ve gotten, as you can see above, about the effectiveness of our message and message placement. Our YouTube channel has even gotten traction for our unique “registration” form by email that encourages viewers to complete a registration form that allows them to view videos in the library. No, the effectiveness isn’t a zero sum game, but rather the greater productivity for our staff and our free time.

For more from Chase Baird and great ideas for your marketing budget, tune in to his Live Xchange Program, check out his “Inbound Marketing 101” and his series on Building Small Businesses and Availing Your Marketing Budget

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