It’s Not How Much it Costs…
Do you think that you “can’t afford” to market? Unless you are turning away business, you can not afford not to market.
Think of it this way: If every $100 you invest in marketing returns $1000 in revenue, would you be willing to do it? Sign me up–I would do that all day, every day.
Of course, there are no guarantees of exactly what the results will be when you spend $100 on marketing. But there is no question that an effective marketing campaign can return many times its cost. Here are some steps to get you started on that effective campaign.
Decide on a budget. It doesn’t have to be a big budget, but you will have to spend something. If you spend more time you may be able to spend less money, but consider the value of your time. If you spend two days writing a sales letter, that is two days you could have spent on billable work or other high-value tasks. A good copywriter may be able to turn out a letter in much less time for just a few hundred dollars (although many top copywriters charge more). Unless you are very talented at writing copy, chances are that the letter written by the professional will get better results than one you write, too. As part of your budgeting process, be honest with yourself about what you can and should do, and what should be left to the pros.
Determine the best way to reach your market. Lots of people focus on online marketing because they see it as “free.” However, you should not use the marketing method that is cheapest, you should use whatever provides the best return on your investment. For most businesses, that will probably be some combination of online and offline marketing. Don’t forget about related techniques, such as publicity.
Include a way to monitor results. If you advertise, how will you track how many customers came through the ad? You might include a discount code or coupon and track how many are redeemed and the value of their purchases. Send online customers to a specific URL. Track the long-term value of customers by source, where you can. You may find that customers who come to you through one channel buy low-margin products and services, or require much more service than others. You may decide to reduce the marketing efforts to customers that result in low-profit sales and focus on making sales that provide a high return on investment.
I said at the beginning that unless you are turning away business, you can not afford not to market. And if you are at the point where you have so much business you are turning customers away? Think about expanding. Yes, it costs money to hire staff, buy equipment, lease more space, etc. However, if you can use those resources to generate more revenues, it could make you more profitable.
Remember, it’s not how much it costs, it’s how much it makes.
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