Stop Spending Money On Marketing!
Today, I’m going to tell you about why you should stop spending money on marketing.
I’m a marketing guy, and I’m telling you to stop spending money on marketing. What the heck is that about? Well, the reality is that many of you are doing it wrong.
Many small business owners, online business owners, and retail business owners are doing their marketing all wrong. So, I’m going to share five reasons why you should stop spending money on marketing.
1. Invest, don’t spend
This is something you’ve probably heard me say before: marketing is an investment, not an expense. If you’re going into a marketing campaign, or if you’re going to hire somebody for a marketing campaign, and you think you’re going to have to spend money, you have the wrong mindset already.
It’s a big-picture type of situation. Even though there are companies — like us — that can get you an ROI very quickly, marketing is a long-term play. It will take at least 90 days, and sometimes a year or two, before you see a huge ROI. It all depends on the strategy you want to take and how much money you have.Â
The more money you have to put towards the investment, the quicker you’ll get your ROI. There’s no going around that.
So that’s my first point: marketing is an investment, not an expense. You want to be in the correct mindset about that.
2. Have a strategy
Next is your strategy. If you’re going into your marketing battle and you’re dealing with somebody who is just using tactics like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, or building WordPress sites, that’s not the solution to your problem.
Your solution is building a strategy that is going to separate you from everybody else, and actually get you leads. And when you get leads, you’re going to drive up your revenue, which is going to pay for your marketing. Your marketing should pay for itself — two, three, four, five, and even ten times over.
Again, that’s another reason why marketing is an investment, not an expense. On the strategy side, you need to have a detailed plan, not just tactics. Many of you might try to handle your marketing yourself by utilizing Facebook Ads or boosting a post — that’s not a marketing strategy. You’re wasting money.
Think of it this way: if I could turn $1 of your advertising budget into $10, how many dollars would you want to spend? You’d want to spend as many as you could, right? That’s the whole key. When you have a strategy, you can have those crazy multiples. You can make 5x, 10x, and sometimes 20x or 25x your investment.
It’s incredibly important to understand the difference between strategy and tactics. You’ve got to have a detailed strategy and a detailed plan in writing — something that you can follow along with and actually stick to.
3. Have systems in place
Now, let’s talk about the systems. Once you’ve developed your strategy and made an investment, you need to have a system in place to bring in the leads, and then to nurture those leads and build relationships with those leads.
You’re spending money on marketing, when you should be investing money on marketing. When you invest in marketing, you’re going to put systems in place on the back end. All the data, and all the information, and all the leads that you gather from these campaigns that you’re investing in — which should pay you back tenfold over time.
There’s a very small percentage of customers who are ready to buy from you right now. It’s anywhere between 3% and 7%. Most of your customers will be buying up to a year or two years from now, and some of them will never buy from you.
So when you go out and do these campaigns, you want to make sure that you have the right battle plan in place, plus the right systems in place to nurture those relationships. Whether it’s email marketing, Facebook marketing, Google retargeting, or any other tool you can make use of.
So when somebody fills in a form on your website, how quickly do you follow up? Do you respond right away? Without these systems, you’ll be throwing money at the wall and hoping that it sticks. And that’s just not a good battle plan.
4. Ask for a proven ROI
The next thing that you’re going to want is a proven ROI. You want to make sure you’re dealing with a company that can show you a proven ROI.
I’m talking about case studies, numbers, and results of actual campaigns that they’ve run. They need to show you the areas that they’ve helped improve other businesses. You can even call those business owners and ask for references.
You want to deal with somebody who has a proven track record and proven results. This has been a big area of growth for my business: learning how to tell that story better to our potential clients, so they can understand that we have a proven track record and proven results. We don’t just say it; we can prove it. There’s a big difference.
When you have that proven ROI, you can be confident that you’re investing money, not spending money. You’re actually going to make money for every dollar that you spend. I always tell my clients that they should be making anywhere over 10x what they spend.
Getting that high ROI is going to be a little harder for someone who has lower ticket sales, as opposed to higher-ticket. For a lower ticket service, you’re going to have to get a higher quantity of jobs to make that ROI. And the ROI is going to be a little bit smaller, unless you’re just a rockstar salesperson and you have a great system in place.
The best marketing strategy, isn’t just about bringing in clients, but it’s also about how you handle those clients and build those relationships. It’s about getting the most money out of each client you’re paying you’re paying for.
Small marketing sites like Angie’s List will get you nowhere. They’re not branding you. They’re sending the leads to multiple people. You aren’t going to get the value out of those sites, because it isn’t your own system. When you hire a marketing company, they should be building a system just for you.
5. You need a partner, not a provider
That brings me to the very last point, which is incredibly important. I can’t stress this enough: companies like Angie’s List or Yelp are not partners. These are providers.
You want to work with partners, not providers. Partners are people who are going to stick with you. They’re going to help you build those systems, and they’re going to invest their time, energy, and talent into your business.
When you spend money with these third-party providers like Angie’s List, you are investing into their company. They aren’t investing into you. Remember: marketing is about the big picture.Â
If you’re working with somebody right now and you feel like that they’re just a provider for you, you need to have a conversation with them. Tell them you’re looking for a partner, not a provider.
If they aren’t willing to make that change and be a partner for you, then maybe it’s time for you to find another person to help you with your marketing. We’re available, here at Adrian Agency. There are tons of great companies out there, but you want to make sure you do your due diligence.
So if this was helpful to you, please share it with a friend. I want to get the word out about this, because a lot of people are spending money on marketing — and it’s giving our industry a bad name.
Thanks so much for tuning in, guys. I’ll see you on the next one. As always, keep looking up!