Marketing is Just an Extra Expense I Don’t Need….Isn’t it?
Marketing departments and marketing agencies always seem to be the first to get cut from budgets when times are tough. As marketing generates sale opportunities, this would seem counterproductive, especially when sales are in short supply.
When businesses face difficult times, increased marketing activity is often the best strategy and we will explain why and provide logical answers to questions surrounding marketing spend.
I’m Not Seeing an Effective Return on the Investment
Granted, in some cases you may not be, but this will not be because “marketing doesn’t work” but rather because of one of the following reasons;
- Your marketing team are not “targeted” enough to produce the results required
- Are you aware of what an effective ROI actually looks like?
- Have you allowed a realistic amount of time to enable marketing strategies to succeed?
In this digital age, marketing is more than just advertising. A thorough knowledge of digital strategies and platforms must be married with well thought out strategies. If the person responsible for putting together your marketing strategy is not an expert in the field, then marketing spend will be ineffective.
A well thought out strategy will go hand in hand with analysis to ensure that the marketing plan is producing results. These results should be a blend of performance and finance targets that can be tracked and attributed to the campaign being implemented. It’s not uncommon for 70% of marketing tactics to fail but it’s absolutely essential to identify this in order to limit the spend on less effective areas whilst concentrating on the other 30%, which will pay real dividends.
Digital marketing takes time to evolve. Campaigns build and gather traction as audiences increase and interest is stimulated. Set goals and targets that take this into account. Be patient and realistic enough to allow your plans to come to fruition. A good agency will adapt and refine their approach but, like most business strategies, the most effective results are attained gradually and are a result of a consistent approach.
Marketing is Too Expensive and We Just Don’t Have The Money For it Now
Marketing shouldn’t be an expense! It’s an investment and if you think of marketing as an expense then your brand development and business growth will be capped in the long run. In addition to this, marketing isn’t actually expensive. If you are a small business or start up, start small and build your way up. Our smallest retainers here at Invanity start from as little as £280 a month and are inclusive of some SEO work and social media support.
In-house marketing can certainly be a large financial commitment but this should not deter smaller businesses from developing marketing strategies. Instead of employing a marketing manager (the average salary of which is £41K) consider employing an agency until your marketing return can justify the cost. This will often cost less than £1,000 per month and eliminates the cost and risk of employing a member of staff.
I Don’t Have The Time to Invest Into Marketing
A good marketing agency will take time to learn about your company, your brand and your competition. This then allows them to develop strategies on your behalf. Speaking as an agency, we actually wouldn’t need that much of your time to run a successful campaign. The average client needs to give us around 5 hours in the on-boarding phase, and then around 45 minutes to an hour per week for things such as approvals. Outside of this, we will look after everything for you. It’s our job to merge seamlessly into your organisation and act as an extension of your team. Alternatively, if you decide to go down the employment route, then be satisfied that you have a “sales generator” on board that affords you the time to concentrate on running the business.
Key Takeaways
- In times of financial constraint spend more on marketing to reverse the trend and increase sales. If you decrease marketing spend it leads to a downwards spiral
- Just because you’ve not seen results in the past doesn’t mean marketing isn’t for you. Analyse your results and don’t be afraid to try a different approach or agency
- Marketing isn’t expensive!! Start small, see the results, then begin slowly increasing your spend. If you are investing in the right company/person you will without doubt, see results
- With the right help, it doesn’t take as much time to invest in your marketing as you may think