Most business owners don’t have unlimited budgets for marketing. In fact, most have little to no budget. But the right marketing is critical to draw in new prospects, maintain brand image, and where possible, increase market share as competitors go out of business.
To do it right, the successful owners I interviewed to write The Success Code spent a great deal of time up front – determining the strength of their target markets and re-evaluating their value propositions, making their dollars stretch by using strategic alliances and other relationships in the community, and testing and measuring every strategy for return on investment.
What does it look like when a company’s marketing ROI falls into the “unhealthy” zone?
You waste precious time and money, only to be disappointed by the lack of prospects in your pipeline. Low numbers of prospects lead business owners to commit acts of desperation – heavy discounting, promising expensive changes to products, stretching the scope of services in order to “win the sale,” taking on customers who aren’t a good fit – chasing, chasing, chasing. These desperate acts erode profitability and, worst of all, they erode your confidence in your own abilities.
Why isn’t it working?
Business owners tend to be self-sufficient do-it-yourselfers. That “git ’er done” attitude is often a boon in business, but when it comes to marketing, taking on the entire function yourself may be a bad idea for the following reasons:
4 Ways to Get More ROI from Your Marketing
Bottom Line
If you’re not a marketing professional, chances are you’ll need some outside help in order to see some ROI – don’t waste more time and money than you’d spend hiring a professional trying to do it yourself. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing, look into lower-cost options like hiring a local freelancer or outsource using websites like elance.com, freelance.com, guru.com, 99designs.com, or behance.com.
Marketing may require an investment, but it doesn’t have to run the well dry. When your marketing is in the “healthy” zone, you should be bringing in more than you spend. Are you in the zone?