Marketing is a phenomenon that is sometimes very misunderstood by some business owners. ?In a lot of cases, it is an overhead that many will avoid spending money until they are in trouble financially or their business has been stagnated and is not growing at the pace it was in the past. ?This is when they might decide they need to start marketing to get new leads and then when they do not have new prospects flocking to their business after they have tried implementing one marketing or lead generation campaign, they become frustrated. ?This is how many justify saying to themselves marketing is a waste of money.
Marketing is something that has to be continuous and needs to be started day one and cannot just be started and stopped and receive expected results. Except for the impulse buying client, it takes sometimes 5-12 contacts of some type with your product and your company for a prospect to contact you. ?The more your business or products are not known, the longer this takes. ?A business needs to do some level of marketing from the beginning to build awareness of their brand and their value proposition. ? It is up to you as a business owner to educate your prospects and future customers and show your ?knowledge and value as a business to make yourself stand out. This has to exist in every marketing piece or medium you develop, whether that is a brochure, website, social media, or press release.
Before implementing a marketing campaign, you need to understand what the average return is for that particular medium. ?In a lot of cases, 1%-2% return is good and that will happen if there is clear messaging and a call to action. Understanding the return and your costs will help you determine whether that medium is even right for your business. ?Example: ?If you pay $5000.00 for an advertisement in a magazine and you have a product that is $25.00 and there is a magazine distribution of 4000. ?The chances of seeing a return on your investment is very low. On the other hand if you have a landing page that is search engine optimized and shows up on page one of Google where you receive thousands of impressions a day, this is probably a good return.
After choosing the right type of campaign, you need to make sure that your messaging is clear and that there is a call to action that can be tracked. The call to action needs to be something of value whether that is a discount, a giveaway, a draw, or some type of download. ?If you are not able to track your results, then you should question spending the money unless this is just to build awareness. ?Examples: ?If you are offering a discount or an in store offer, make sure that they have to bring in the coupon. ?If you are providing a free download, have them provide information before they download the e-book, white paper, or case study.?
If your business has not done ?marketing in the past, you cannot just decide to run one advertisement or send out one direct mail and if you do not get instant customers from it - ?throw up your hands and run - it takes time. You also cannot put all of your eggs in one basket. ?You need to try different marketing mediums if you are not aware of what works for your customers or industry. ?What works for the business next door may or may not work for you. ?Our business is a very good example. ?Our past life background was focused on high technology product companies where a lot of traditional marketing mediums worked, such as direct mail or cold calling. ?When we started our business, this is what we tried first and found out very quickly these were not good mediums for the type of consulting we do. ?Because we are working very closely in someone's business, there has to be a level of trust. ?The client has to be in need of our services and know they want help in their business. ?That is not something you are going to talk them into over the phone or make them understand through a direct mail piece. ?We get business through referrals from other clients, through networking, from our website, social media, and through doing workshops and seminars. ?It has taken time and did not happen overnight. ?I would have to say the money we spent on marketing 2 years ago is paying off today and we make sure we keep spending time and money on marketing now so we keep generating awareness and leads for the future.
The key is not to wait to decide to implement marketing in your business when you are stagnate or are in trouble financially. ?If you spend a little money along as you have it versus waiting until you need leads and then spend $10K on a campaign hoping to save the business - it is most likely too late. ?You are at a point you need ?new customers and are counting on that one big win and that is not going to happen. It is like buying a lottery ticket and hoping it pays off. ?Marketing has to be planned out and cannot be used only at a time you need new growth immediately or are in trouble financially.?
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