Business advice is everywhere, isn't it? 

Open your phone and someone is telling you to post three times a day, stop discounting, start discounting, be on every platform or focus on just one. And quite often, the person giving that advice knows absolutely nothing about your business, your customers or what you're actually trying to achieve.

Now, I love learning from other people, and I think there's enormous value in listening to different experiences and ideas. But we also need to get better at recognising which advice is relevant to our own circumstances. In this episode of the Talk Podcast, we're exploring how to evaluate the advice coming your way, learn from other people's experiences and make marketing decisions that suit the business you're actually building.

Not Every Strategy Suits Every Business

A marketing strategy that works beautifully for a large national brand might be completely unrealistic for a sole trader working with customers in one town. A product business will have different priorities from a consultant, and a business just starting out will approach marketing differently from one with an established customer base.

That doesn't necessarily mean the advice is wrong. It means the circumstances are different. When someone tells you that every business owner should be doing something, it's worth asking which businesses they're talking about, who they're trying to reach and what they're hoping to achieve. That little bit of thinking can save you an awful lot of unnecessary work.

Look for Experience, Not Just Confidence

Some people are incredibly convincing when they share business advice online. They speak with confidence, make big statements and leave you feeling like you're missing something important if you don't immediately follow their recommendations.

But confidence doesn't automatically make someone the right person to advise you. Look at what they've actually done, what they understand about businesses like yours and what assumptions they're making. And don't automatically dismiss someone from another industry either. Sometimes an outside perspective gives us a wonderful idea. The skill is learning from that experience without blindly copying everything they did.

Your Own Business Is Giving You Information

You know things about your business that the loudest expert on the internet doesn't. You know what customers ask before they buy, which services are profitable, how much time you have available and what sort of work you actually enjoy doing.

If referrals are bringing you fantastic customers, don't abandon those relationships because someone insists paid advertising is the only way forward. If your audience enjoys receiving thoughtful emails, there's no reason to stop sending them simply because short-form video is popular. You can experiment with new approaches while continuing to nurture what is already working.

Build a Filter for Business Advice

One of the most useful things you can do is develop a way of evaluating advice before you commit your time, money and energy to it.

When someone recommends a new strategy, consider whether it supports the result you're trying to achieve, whether it suits your audience and whether you have the resources to implement it properly. You also need to know how you'll recognise whether it worked.

Take podcasting, for example. A weekly podcast can be a wonderful marketing tool if you enjoy speaking, have useful knowledge to share and can maintain a regular schedule. But perhaps a monthly episode is more realistic, or your audience would prefer reading a blog. The right approach depends on the people you're reaching and the business you're running.

Experiment Without Following Every Trend

Being selective about advice doesn't mean closing yourself off to new ideas. I love experimenting with marketing, and sometimes trying something unfamiliar leads to opportunities we wouldn't otherwise have discovered.

The important thing is giving your experiments a purpose and a reasonable opportunity to work. If you're attending a new networking event, for example, success might mean making a useful connection, meeting a potential collaborator or learning something valuable. Expecting five immediate sales from every event probably isn't realistic.

Try something, pay attention to what happens and use that experience to decide what comes next.

Make Decisions for the Business You're Building

General marketing advice is exactly that. General. It's a starting point for learning, but it still needs to be considered alongside your business goals, customers, resources and the way you want to work.

This is one of the reasons I encourage business owners to work through their marketing using the Marketing Tree Method rather than following a rigid collection of rules. Your marketing needs to support your business, and that means making decisions based on your own circumstances.

Other people's experiences can be incredibly helpful, but you're the one making the commitments and living with the decisions.

Your Challenge

The next time someone shares a confident piece of business or marketing advice, give yourself a moment before adding another task to your list.

Ask yourself:

• Does this support what I'm trying to achieve?
• Is it relevant to my customers and audience?
• Do I have the time, resources and skills to do it properly?
• How will I know whether it has worked?

You might discover something worth trying, something to adapt or something that simply isn't right for your business at the moment.

Keep learning, stay curious and be willing to experiment. Just remember that the best marketing decisions are the ones you make with your own business in mind.

Highlights

• 00:00 The Problem With Business Advice
• 00:55 Learning What Advice Is Relevant
• 01:30 Why Business Context Matters
• 02:30 Look for Experience, Not Confidence
• 03:15 Learn Without Blindly Copying
• 03:40 Trust Your Own Business Evidence
• 04:45 Four Questions to Filter Advice
• 05:15 Choosing the Right Marketing Approach
• 06:05 Test Ideas and Evaluate Results
• 07:00 Make Decisions That Fit Your Business