I know, most of us have been there, we’re watching an infomercial or wandering the aisles of Williams-Sonoma and we see all these amazing kitchen gadgets and tools that we know will let us cook like the pros. What you find out soon enough is great cooking takes time to shop for the ingredients, study the recipes, and carefully prepare things - the tools might make it easier, the cookbook tells you what to do but you have to invest the time and energy to make happen; and have the passion to make it delicious.

It’s human nature to love the shiny new object in the room and believe it can transform our lives in three easy steps. We’ve all bought it in one form or another at some point in time. Been there, done that. And if we’ve tasted any success in life or business we know 98% it came the old fashion way: hard work, discipline and tenacity.

This brings me to something I’ve been thinking about lately. Every day I get asked about a new website, blog, social networking or SEO service and tool and what I think about it. Squarespace, Robin Robins, Kutenda, Twitter, Social Network distribution widgets-the list is long. Most of the time my answer is the same: “It looks great, very impressive but are you going to do the work to get the value out of it?”

Think about marketing like you do security
Anti-virus software is essential for PC health but without updates it quickly becomes useless. Security isn’t set and forget. It takes constant monitoring and tuning. It takes training and good policy as well. There may be great tools to help with creating a secure network such as a firewall, but without proper set-up, management and attention that tool doesn’t accomplish anything.

Marketing is no different
There are a plethora of amazing tools; for websites, newsletters, SEO, social networking - but if you want them to bring you new clients you have to develop them in a consistent and professional way for a long period of time. You have to do the work day in and day out if you want results. Just like with the Veg-O-Matic, if you’re signed up for Constant Contact, an amazing tool, but you never write the content for the newsletter your marketing is never going to come out of the oven.

When you start on improving your marketing a good tool is helpful but first make sure you’ve got the commitment to stick with it to see results. It’s so much better to do a few things well rather than over-extending yourself. You know your website needs a refresh, you need a newsletter, you want to blog, you need to do a campaign - the list is endless, on top of all the clients you’ve got to take care of. My advice is pick one, do it right until it feels like a habit and you have it in a routine. Then think about the next one. It’s not magic and it takes time but one day you’ll have cooked up a banquet of sizzling MSP marketing.

What to see what we’re up to at Pronto Marketing? Check out the Pronto Client Forums - opened for visitors for a sneak preview who are interested in MSP Marketing.