Sadly, it seems we live in a world where the Dunning-Kruger effect is writ large.

Those with the least experience and knowledge, but who are supremely confident in their prognoses get all the airtime.

Those who think a bit deeper and see the shades of grey get pushed to the sidelines.

The good news is that you and I don't have to play by the same rules as the masses. We can play smart.

When it comes to marketing, if someone tells you with absolute certainty that their approach is the absolute best in all situations, run a mile.

(Especially if it's an amazing new online course or tool that just so happens to be on launch right now at a never to be repeated price).

You almost always find that a mix of approaches works best, not just one.

Research by Analytic Partners in 2016 showed that if you run a marketing campaign on two platforms instead of one (with a platform being something like TV, radio, paid search or online video) then the ROI of your campaign goes up by 19%. Add another platform and it goes up by another 4% etc.

And this is without increasing your budget. You just allocated it to 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 platforms instead of one.

Now us smaller businesses don't have the time or budget to master 5 marketing platforms of course. But the point is clear. There's no “one best” anything. Lots of different marketing tactics work and they often work synergistically.

You often see this in the eternal battle between online and offline marketing. 

And, of course, the defenders of traditional marketing and the new online pretenders both miss the point. 

They work best together.

Not one or the other.

There's nothing better than face to face approaches to build relationships fast. Especially for high-value clients.

But there's nothing better than online marketing to build a big pipeline of potential clients to nurture “on autopilot” until they're ready to engage personally.

Always try to have a mix of both types of marketing in your business.