10 reasons why you shouldn’t spend money on marketing
Working out where to spend your business budget? Read 10 reasons why you shouldn’t waste money on marketing – and why they may just be wrong!
When it comes to money, businesses have a tendency to be very thirsty – if you’re not careful, before you know it you’ve blown your budget, and are forced to cut back on spending. And one area it’s easy to dismiss as a luxury is marketing.
After all, you can grow your business without wasting money on expensive advertising campaigns, can’t you?
Actually, according to Jayshree Badhan from Marketing Monkey you can’t. Or at least, you can’t as quickly and effectively.
10 reasons why you shouldn’t waste money on marketing
Over the years, Jayshree has helped dozens of business grow though thoughtful marketing investment (note the use of the word ‘investment’ – done properly, marketing should always bring in more profit than it cost in the short or long term).
She’s also heard plenty of reasons why businesses choose not to invest in marketing. Now she’s sharing her top 10 reasons why you shouldn’t ‘waste’ money on marketing, and why they’re wrong.
1) You don’t want more sales
If you want more sales then people need to know your business exists – they’re much more likely to become your customers if they know what you offer and where to find you.
So if you don’t want to attract new customers to your business (and remind old ones how great you are) then don’t invest in marketing.
If you do decide to spend money on marketing and your campaigns are doing their job effectively, you’ll start to see an increase in sales soon after you get started (of course this depends on the type of product or service you offer and the type of marketing you are doing).
For example, Google Adwords and Facebook ads can start sending you traffic – and potentially customers – within minutes of executing your campaign.
2) You don’t want to increase awareness
If you want your business to fly under the radar, and keep your business a secret from potential customers, save your money and spend it on something other than marketing.
Sometimes your best customers may see your ads hundreds of times before they commit to buying. They may even remember it and then recommend it. Raising awareness instils your business’ brand, its product, and its benefits in the mind of your target audience.
By raising awareness through marketing, you’ll build a big audience of potential customers who know who you are, know what you can offer, and know exactly how to contact you.
3) You don’t want to learn your metrics
Most marketing campaigns will have related metrics with which you can measure how successful they are. There are myriad of statistics for Adwords, Facebook and Twitter for example. It makes it easier for you to optimise your price and profit margin.
Basic online conversion optimisation tactics can also be used to tweak your pricing. It’s important to calculate key performance indicators such as your cost per acquisition (CPA), lifetime customer value (LCV), or average revenue per user (ARPU). The key takeaway here is to launch your campaigns, get as much data as you can, and trust your metrics.
However, if you don’t want to make your sales strategy more tailored and based on actual learned facts, then don’t invest in marketing.
4) You don’t want to build your customers’ trust
The more well known your company becomes, the more people will trust you. This in turn will make them more likely to buy your products and services.
This can’t be done overnight of course. The earlier you start marketing your business, the longer your target audience will have known you.
So if you spend money on marketing, you risk becoming better known and more trusted – and if that’s not what you want for your business, hold into your pennies.
5) You don’t want to create a social asset
By marketing your business now, you can build a powerful social asset that you can sell products to. By giving your audience a way to connect, whether it’s through a Facebook page a Pinterest board or an online form on your website, you’ll provide a platform for selling products and engaging with your audience.
So if you want to start building a social asset, and growing an invaluable list for promoting your products and increasing your sales, start marketing now. If not, forget it.
6) You don’t want to learn everything about your industry
If you don’t want to become an expert in your industry, steer well clear of marketing. You see, marketing opens your eyes to what your industry really looks like. Once you start your own campaigns, you start seeing what your competitors are doing.
This information helps you develop your campaigns, learn more about your target audience, and get a good feel for your industry.
You can also discover more about your own customers. Using tools such as Google Analytics, you’ll find out which keywords and websites are referring the most customers to you. And a Facebook page will help you discover what your customers share and like.
7) You don’t want to discover what works
Have you ever seen an advertisement and wondered how anyone could possibly be persuaded by it? A lot of the best ads look and feel like the worst. By marketing your business, you quickly learn which types of advertisements and marketing tactics are effective, and which ones aren’t effective.
There are hundreds of marketing tactics you could use to find customers – from old-fashioned direct mail to modern search marketing. Experimenting with different marketing methods helps you find the ones that work and focus on them – and if you don’t want to know that, then don’t bother with advertising.
8) You don’t want to develop an ‘ideal customer’ profile
If you don’t want to really get to know your ideal customer (and find more of the same) then don’t waste your money on marketing.
Great marketing makes it easy for customers to find you. Over time, as you build a database with the information you’ve gained from your marketing campaigns, it also becomes easier for you to find them.
Your ideal customer profile might include age, income, location, hobbies and interests, and occupation. You can start seeing trends and use these to target further campaigns.
9) You don’t want to learn how to test and optimise your marketing
If you prefer your marketing to be an occasional and expensive stab in the dark, then don’t plan a considered strategy.
If you want any marketing you invest in to work properly, it’s crucial to test different headlines, images, and ads in your marketing – and you can only do this with a proper strategy.
A headline that sounds great in your mind may barely engage your audience, while another that sounds silly could be perfect for generating leads. A/B testing is surprisingly easy once you’ve mastered the basics. And if you can’t test and optimise, you’ll never know which headline is the right one for your business, which means when you do have an adhoc need for promotion, you risk wasting money on ads that miss the mark.
10) You don’t want to build a brand to remember
If you’re not in the business of creating a memorable brand (and reaping the financial rewards it delivers) then avoid marketing.
The best marketers will set out to sell more products as well as build a brand that’s easy to remember. The ultimate goal of your marketing campaigns should be to have customers come to you. Branding is what separates your business from your competitors – it’s what makes customers choose you instead of someone else.
Brands are essential, and without marketing your business you’ll struggle to develop a memorable, powerful brand.
Are you ready to ‘waste’ money on marketing?
Marketing is such a broad term that covers a myriad of different activities for every budget. So even if you only have a tiny sum to invest in some kind of promotion, do it. After all, you can’t afford not to!
Need more marketing advice, including free marketing and PR tips? You can read our top 10 stories on marketing here.
You can learn more about Marketing Monkey and how they can help businesses of every size on their website.
