Imagine you discover a compound in your kitchen that will cure cancer.

You know it works because it cured your mother.

That would be a really amazing feeling, to be able to make a huge difference to peoples lives, and find instant wealth at the same time.

Imagine further that you did  not tell anybody.

Your Mum knows, as do your siblings and a few others close to you, the old family doctor is sceptical, and your neighbour who goes to church a lot is downright dismissive, because it is clearly a miracle that has brought the cure, not a chemical.

The barrier between you and success is twofold:

1. Lack of credibility
2. Lack of an audience.

So it is with  marketing.

The newest iteration of marketing, digital, is not a cure-all for an ordinary product, non competitive price, lack of distribution underdone value proposition, or anything else that normally leads to failure in the market place, it is just an additional set of options to understand and manage.

You still need both the product customers want and the audience that knows about it.

One without the other is not of much value.

Most small businesses fail one if not both the tests.

No matter how great their product, how responsive their service, without an audience, people who know about what you do and care enough not just to shower praise, but to go out and buy it, and encourage others to do the same, they will fail.

Success with digital marketing is not easy, despite the nonsense to the contrary, but it is a capability now as basic as having a good phone manner was 20 years ago.