It is a funny question but...
"How much is "not marketing" costing you?"
Improved marketing is definitely one of the overlooked opportunities for hidden profit that comes from continually testing and improving the marketing you do.
But what if you don't do any marketing or virtually none... and you are struggling for business.
You want more... in fact you may desperately want the phone to ring with a customer enquiry... but you are held back.
You fear the cost of wasted money and time spent marketing MORE than you value the opportunity of extra business... no matter how irrational you know that is.
Three things in the last few days have made me think about this "not marketing" issue.
The Desire To Cut Back On Marketing Costs
First a discussion with Bryan Bliss of Generosity Marketing on my Advertising For Accountants blog. This was about whether small business owners should be looking to reduce marketing costs... or when they have winning offers to ramp it up and spend even more.
My Pay Per Click Campaign
Then yesterday I was putting my pay per click campaign together to promote my current free business coaching offer.
On reflection I'm intrigued by my mindset when I was making choices about my daily budget and my maximum bid per click.
One part of me wants this offer to be seen by as many people who need to see it to take action... I am looking to raise at least £1,000 for cancer charities.
But another part of me is saying "Paul you don't want to be paying much because the hook is for a free offer which then leads into another option to get your coaching at a big discount including a donation for charity."
As it takes time to get feedback on the offer - both in the PPC ad and in the full offer - there is an argument to be made for having a generous budget to get good page positions and plenty of potential views.
I was stingy... stingy and dumb.
My objective is to get eyeballs on the PPC offer and clicks through to my main offer and I've gone back to change my budget.
A Sad Conversation
The third thing to make me think about the costs of "not marketing" was a sad conversation I had with a small business owner yesterday.
A struggling business has turned into a desperation situation and there was talk of personal bankruptcy.
John even said to me "Please you are going to shout at me... this has all happened because I haven't applied myself to my marketing and I've not done it consistently."
I gave him some tips but for all the talk of free marketing, the effective stuff tends to cost money. Yes you may get dribbles of business from the free marketing but it's tough.
Advertising costs, improving your website costs, driving traffic with pay per click costs, direct mail costs...
Picking up the telephone and calling possible prospects doesn't cost much and nor does going around to see someone... but it can be immensely frustrating... and there is always the danger that the desperation for the order shows through.
The False Logic Of Not Marketing
It seems to me that two things cause the "not marketing" syndrome:
- Fear that the marketing costs will be more than the business that comes from it... sometimes much more cost.
I suspect that most of us have had marketing campaigns that bombed... even the great direct marketers and copywriters are not infallible.
I've heard Jay Abraham tell a story where he lost something like $250,000 on one campaign - sorry I can't remember the details. - Fear that the marketing works too well.
You get too many enquiries and you can't cope, you let the prospective customers down, you let your existing customers down and you finish up with a bad reputation.
It's this double fear which can bracket you into "not marketing".
Fixing The "Not Marketing" Problem
The first fear - that your marketing campaign doesn't work - can be reduced in two ways:
- Learn direct response marketing techniques yourself by studying the greats like Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert and Joe Sugarman or work with a direct marketing expert and pay on a contingency basis.
Paying by results may cost more if your campaign is a success but limits your cost if the campaign doesn't live up to expectations. - Test your campaign small.
If you are sending out direct mail perhaps start with 250 and see what happens. Follow up in a couple of days by telephone and find out what kind of response you get. If your potential customers don't remember your letter, it didn't make much of an impact.
If you are using Pay Per Click give yourself a sensible budget so you can test alternative Ads and see which works best quickly. Just keep on top of your Adwords account by monitoring it carefully.
The second fear - that of the marketing campaign doing too well can also be controlled by the limited test numbers.
Even if you are overloaded with interest (I once heard of an accountant sending out a letter to 20 possible clients and had 13 responses - a staggering 65% response rate - and the letter was nothing special) you can make a virtue of the overwhelming response.
Scarcity increases perceived value... if you said "Act now"... you meant act immediately... not the next day.
No sorry it looks like we are fully booked is a wonderfully liberating experience.
Yes you may have spent more on marketing than you needed to but do you really care now you are booked solid?
Don't avoid the marketing issue... in a few days time I will be asking How Much Is Not Marketing Effectively Costing You?
What Do You Think?
Have you suffered from the "not marketing" syndrome and if so, how did you get out of it?
Working With Me
If you like what I write and you want help turning good ideas into profitable action, then check out my business coaching offer.
I am also introducing a new service to create business mastermind groups so like minded small groups of entrepreneurs can work together to create success and share best practice ideas.
Other marketing blogs - Marketing 1, marketing 2, marketing 3 marketing 4 marketing 5 marketing 6 marketing 7
Comments