Any business can be scaled to 7 or 8 figures using a single marketing channel. So why do we use so many?

The obvious answer is because there are so many options. During the early 1900s, there were only a few places we could market a business; now, there are more places than we could think of.

We started with just a few newspapers; then the radio came along, then TV, and now with all the digital options out there, we have 1000’s of different channels to choose from.

INTERNET ECHO-CHAMBER

The internet echo-chamber is a dangerous place for entrepreneurs.

See what usually happens is one leading marketer with a public profile such as Gary Vee or Russel Brunson will start talking about a new channel or method that is hot right now. They’ll create seminars, info products, and give talks about the latest opportunity.

Among their followers are 1,000’s of hungry marketers looking for the next method they can sell to their audiences. They don’t create any new frameworks or marketing concepts themselves; they imitate and market the latest opportunities taught by marketing leaders.

Soon one novel concept created by Russel Brunson or the likes is being marketed by 1,000’s of C and D players all over the internet. This creates an echo-chamber. And when we get told something enough times, we think we’re missing out on something and FOMO into it.

See, not every new marketing channel or platform being shilled by these C and D player’s will be relevant for your business.

However, the C & D players don’t care about that, though; they want to profit from this new IP.

For example, every man and their dog tells business owners to get on social media and start producing content. But they have no idea whether that business or business owner is suited for social media.

Some of us are better off going to networking events, setting up stalls at trade shows or focusing on business development.

With limited resources, you can only pursue so many options.

Taking time and resources away from a method that’s already working is not a good strategy. That’d be like killing off your best selling product or service because a few random people on the internet told you, you should be selling something else.

THE TIME TRADEOFF

Let’s say you hire a marketer for your business. You’ve become too busy to look after marketing yourself, so you decide to hire someone to take care of this.

They have 40 hours a week to market your business to the best of their abilities. You start by asking them to produce a regular EDM for your email list. They dive into the EDM, investing all 40 hours per week to create it.

You see some ads on Facebook talking about webinars and how they are the next big thing for marketers. So you talk to your Marketer and ask them to start creating webinars for your business.

Now they’re spending 20 hours per week on your EDM and 20 hours per week on your Webinar. They do a great job of both. Your webinars are generating you a consistent stream of leads, and your EDM’s are going well and bringing in new sales.

Next, you goto a local seminar on SEO. You can see how this will help your business, so you ask your marketer to start working on your website and creating content for SEO purposes.

Now your marketer is splitting their time between EDM’s, webinars, and SEO. The following month when you catch up for your marketing review, you notice sales from your EDM have dropped slightly. You enquire about this. Your marketer explains that when they started, they had 40 hours a week to produce a high-quality EDM, but now with webinars and SEO, they only have 10 hours per week to dedicate to the EDM.

You can guess what will happen when you ask your marketer to start producing content for Facebook and Instagram. Sales from your EDM’s drop further, the webinars become outdated and aren’t as effective anymore, and you’ve yet to see much traction from their SEO efforts.

As you direct your marketer into more marketing channels, your marketer has less time to invest in each.

If you followed all the latest strategies being shilled, your marketer would end up with 1 or 2 hours per week for each activity. You can imagine how ineffective that will be.

The more platforms and strategies you try, the less time you’ll have available to invest in each activity.

The less time you invest in a platform or strategy, the less likely it will generate your business sales.

The more activities or platforms you try to learn at once, the longer it will take you to use them effectively.

Taking on a lot of different channels at once almost guarantees your marketing will be less effective.

We’re tempted by new marketing methods due to the promise of extra customers and sales. Most ads I see show testimonies or examples of people and companies who’ve generated millions from this latest marketing secret.

However, that should be proof in itself that you only need to do well on one platform or channel to achieve 7 figure + revenues. You don’t need to be marketing across 20 different channels to generate a 7 figure income. You only need one.

DOUBLE DOWN ON THE BEST

If you’re not at seven figures and use more than a few channels, stop.

Take a moment to review everything you’re doing, dig into the numbers, talk to your staff, talk to your customers. Find out what is working and what isn’t. If your business follows Pareto’s law like the rest of the universe, 20% of what you are doing will generate 80% of your results.

Find your 20% and double down on that. Invest 80% of your resources into the 20% that’s already working.

THE LAW OF COMPOUNDING RETURNS

When you start doubling down on the thing that works, you’ll get a hell of a lot better at that skill in a much shorter space of time than you would by trying to learn 20 at once.

No different from learning to play an instrument or a sport.

Here’s why. Your first 100 hours might help you improve 10x on the platform you are focusing on, putting you in the top 50% of marketers on that platform. (B, below)

Your next 100 hours might only help you improve 2x, but you’ll now be in the top 25% on that platform. (C, below)

Another 100 hours, and you might only improve 50%, but now you’re in the top 10% of that platform. (D, below)

The percentage of improvement you are making, compared to your previous skill level, is not relevant. What is relevant is how your skill level compares to others.

The top 1% of Basketball players probably earn more than the bottom 99% combined.

The top 1% of Lawyers probably earn more than the bottom 50% combined.

TEST THE REST

Over time, your tried and true marketing tactics will become less effective. Companies who’ve done well in TV advertising will have noticed a considerable drop in their campaigns’ effectiveness over the past 20 years.

Just because one channel or platform is working well now does not mean it will continue in the future.

You’ll have to change it up and find new ways to market your product or services at some point in time.

This is what you do with your other 20% of time and resources. Give things ago, and find your next successful channel. Just don’t try to do everything at once.