Things can be going great. You have momentum. Your marketing is generating attention. People are buying from you. The Web site is busy.

And then — it happens almost always, to almost everyone — things start to slow down.

Momentum slips away.

Suddenly, all that forward inertia you had six weeks ago is gone, and you find yourself at what is, basically, a stopped position.

What happened?

How did you get here?

It’s a marketing breakdown, and I see it with nearly every client I work with — from publicly traded to startups, and stations in between. It’s something that happens frequently. But it’s also something that can be easily avoided.

Here’s the three-step process which takes so many companies from effective marketing to silence:

The Trigger: There’s always a triggering event. At large companies, this is often an effective marketing program coming to an end. The budget has been used up. The calendar has run out. The program, which generated great results, winds down. For an example of this, consider Microsoft’s extremely effective “I’m a PC” ads from a few years ago. They were compelling, and they worked. They created momentum for Microsoft. Then, they simply ended. The campaign stopped.

Other triggers: A key marketing leader departing. A distraction, a crisis to react to. Internal debate, no alignment on next steps. A lack of big, creative thinking. There are more, but these are the big ones.

The Disappearing Act: Once the effective marketing ceases, the typical reaction for most companies is to go into a shell. Communication becomes rare. They are trying to perfect the next message, but it never gets to perfect. Your market stops hearing from you. Your market forgets about you.

Paralysis: At this point, you’re not moving, and an object at rest is very difficult to move. It takes a massive effort to create progress at this point, and most companies simply don’t know how to do it. So, they do nothing.

So, what can you do? How can you keep the triggering event from harming you? 

Because these triggers will occur. The key is to have other, steady, ongoing programs that will soften and even eliminate their impact.

The answer is, like most of my advice, very simple:

1. Focus — in your products and services, as well as in your marketing. Become great at one or two products or services, and market with your greatest strengths.
2. Simplify — Your products and services, as well as your marketing, can likely benefit from simplification. Say less. Use less words. Focus on lifestyle.
3. Relentlessly communicate — This is the rate-determining step. Have great, long lists of customers. Provide them with value constantly. Execute an excellent, relationship-based press program. Fight to get your value seen by your market from multiple medias. This is not advertising. I’m talking about direct communication, between you and your customers and prospective customers.

I covered the above three-step solution in my latest Monday morning short-form newsletter, which is posted here. (Subscribe for free to the right of this page.)

Sure, it’s possible to recover from the kind of common marketing stoppage that I detail here.

But it’s easier to prevent it altogether.