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Don’t waste money on advertising - invest in marketing
As you develop your 2010 budgets, what are your plans regarding your marketing and advertising…and why? So often we talk with business owners who have spent thousands of dollars on yellow pages, banner ads, radio, newspapers and other forms of advertising. In most cases, they bought the ad because the sales person was very convincing and it sounded like a good idea at the time. However, they often feel like they never saw a return on their investment and are then hesitant to try other methods of advertising. Which is good! What? Yes, it’s true. For most small and medium sized businesses, advertising is not very effective. Of course, there are exceptions, but in most cases, developing smart marketing campaigns is the way to go for smaller companies. Large companies can advertise because they have the budgets to buy the frequency and combinations to reach huge audiences. For example, Coca-Cola advertises on billboards, radio, tv, in magazines & newspapers, etc. Obviously, advertising works for them: they are the most recognized brand in the world. With advertising, it is very difficult to calculate specifically what is generating new revenues for you. However, with marketing you can easily see what’s working, what isn’t and quickly make changes to be more effective. Marketing includes your email campaigns, direct mail (postcards and letters), and even your SEO and social media campaigns. Marketing allows you to segment your audience so that different types of prospects receive messages that will be informative, interesting, and relevant to them. You can also include a ‘call to action’ which will help you to see how effective a particular campaign is. If you’re getting ho-hum results, it’s not very difficult or expensive to change the message or the call to action. So as you put your budgets together for next year, ask yourself if you will be spending your money on advertising or investing it in marketing?
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