We had some good news this week: our dog Layla has cleared her heartworm test, which means she can start to return to normal activities.

Six months ago, after she had an anaphylaxis shock, a routine follow-up visit revealed that she had heartworm. Heartworm in dogs is a serious and potentially fatal disease caused by a parasite transmitted to dogs through the bite of an infected mosquito. The larvae mature over several months and reside in the heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels, where they can grow up to a foot in length. Too much exercise or excitement could have literally killed her.

We think she got it in June. She was on heartworm meds for years, so she was that rare case that broke through the medical shield.

What followed were expensive, painful treatments, and keeping her very calm. We blocked off the second floor with a baby gate and had to take her out on a leash in the backyard. This was tough for a dog that got two one-mile daily walks, loved to run and play ball, and spent at least two days at doggie daycare.

With the all clear, we can incrementally get her back to all her joyous and happy dog activities. In about another month, everything should be back to normal for her. Let me tell you that her first short two-block walk had her smiling and tail wagging like we have not seen in quite a while. What a JOY!

Step by Step…

I believe that a business change (both good and bad) can be like what happened to Layla. One small thing, like a mosquito bite, may go unnoticed. It took six months before the worms matured into a lethal threat. We may have never known unless she had that trip to the emergency vet and needed a follow-up visit. Once noticed, it took six months to cure (fix), and more time is required to return to normal.

There could be a flaw in a system, a leak in your network protection, or a bug in a piece of software that remains unnoticed until another event brings that flaw to the forefront, and then all hell breaks loose.

Most of the time, we have no control over the circumstance that exposes the flaw. What we do have control over is why and how we choose to deal with it. Just like what happened with Layla, the treatment or solution can take as long as the problem takes to surface.

We often want to fix the problem as fast as possible, but that may not be the best way to implement a solution.

Historic Future

When we implement change or a fix, we need metrics and data to give us feedback as to how things are progressing or working as expected. With Layla, we had to wait months after her initial and booster shots to see if the treatment and our ability to keep her calm were successful.

When it comes to internet marketing, we have tests and results as well. Google Analytics can give you historical relevance as to how you are doing. With a recent client project, we had just started by adding two blogs and then adding them to LinkedIn personal profiles and company pages. Although the direct traffic increased slightly to the website, the time on the site increased by 35%. Also, the traffic from social media increased by over 20 times what it was. In looking at the posts themselves, they did have significant traffic to be in the top 10 landing locations on the website. On top of that, almost every page in that top 10 had an increase in traffic.

The goal of creating the posts was to increase traffic to the website. I would say that goal was achieved, but it's just the beginning step. We have a second set (and third and fourth) to complete.

The first post was meant to be a cornerstone post that introduces the company to new clients and reinforces it to current ones. It is basic but informational. Future posts will include more technical and operational differences that help position them above their competition.

The real test comes when we implement social media ads that target prospects and may re-engage recent clients. We can target specifics like company size, industry, job seniority, and more to ensure we only advertise to their perfect avatar.

Google Analytics allows us to view the past (last month) versus the present (how is the new content driving new traffic to the website) and the future (what content is resonating with the audience so we can create with that in mind).

Step It Up

With Layla, we had to bring her back to the vet each month to check the incremental progress. The content system we are implementing is similar. It has steps. Each of these steps needs to be followed, and the effectiveness measured to ensure success.

• If we created all the content upfront, we would miss valuable feedback
• If we did the advertising day one, we would miss sequencing prospects through our thought leadership journey
• If we did not have Google Analytics already on the site, we would miss valuable data that helps us measure success

One last trick that we use is to create a banner ad on each of the blogs that entices viewers to contact the company to ask questions. It replicates the main contact us page, but has a different URL so we can track if and when readers are expressing direct interest in the posts or digging into the website further. We do have tools that will allow us to view the user journey, so we can see how and when they choose to engage.

We want to make sure that we don't muddy our data by implementing too much at once. This will help us better gauge which is causing the most success. Then, in the future, we can do more of what's working and less of what is not!

Closing Thought

Underlying problems are all around us. When they arise, we must have a plan or at least some measurement tools to help us gauge their range and depth.

Moving too fast to fix a problem can create more problems or maybe not really fix the root cause. We need to be intentional about what we do, how we do it, and how fast we expect solutions.

By the way, we had quality care teams to help us deal with Layla's health issues, and we could not have been successful just by reading information on the internet or plugging it into AI. She needed a personal plan, and we needed accountability.

Now she is back to being Happy Dog who gets to check her PMail again every day!

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.