Marketing: Can you afford not to do it?
At one point or another, every entrepreneur has looked at their budget and felt that “something’s gotta go.” More often than not, they look at the price tag to get a great marketing campaign off the ground and think one of three things:
It’s way too expensive for marketing. I am just going to start operating and see what happens.
Hiring someone is expensive. I can definitely do this by myself to cut costs.
I’m going to go ahead with the investment.
Let’s have a look at all three schools of thought.
#1: Waiting on the magic
After taking the time to build a business concept, you’re just going to sit back and hope the masses come to you? You’re going to entrust your business success to a wing and a prayer attitude?
This could be compared to musicians who keep saying over and over that they just want to be discovered and become famous, but they don’t really put themselves out there. Inevitably, they don’t get discovered because absolutely no one knows they exist and then they just complain about lack of opportunities for them that others had.
Newsflash. For most people, success does not come easy. It takes hard work and dedication. But it also takes a bit of storytelling magic. You need to put your brand story out there so your target audience can find you and learn about you.
And it’s ok to strive for organic growth instead of explosive growth. No one can knock growing organically. For many entrepreneurs, accelerated growth can be overwhelming, and, while it likely means higher revenues, burnout from understaffing and lack of scalable processes can lead to disaster.
While marketing can be done on a budget, you will likely have to put some resources into your strategy.
#2: Lone cost-cutting ranger
While noble, for many business owners, there is enough to do without having to worry about posting to Twitter 3 – 10 times per day, or how you are going to get through to that editor or producer so they can showcase your product. Working with an agency that you trust will ensure that your story is being told in the best possible way.
If you have spoken to an agency and you still really feel that it’s not in the budget to do a full implementation, rather than shut down the idea and say that you will just do it (knowing full-well procrastination will set in), just talk to them about what your budget is and see what you can accomplish. A good agency/consultant will be able to offer options to you such as partial implementation for selected tactics or even setting you up with a strategy and coaching so you can implement internally.
Bringing someone in to put together a strategy for you could open your eyes to opportunities that you maybe hadn’t thought of. It’s also a great way to fully develop your brand story with someone who is objective.
#3: Diving in
If you see the value of getting your story out there, the question is how much do you do. If you have done proper forecasting in your business planning, then you could take a percentage of what you expect to make in the first year as your launch budget. If you are just looking to refresh your current marketing, the same principal applies. What percentage? Well, that depends on your industry and where you’re at in your journey. You are going to have to do a bit of research, but it shouldn’t take you long to find a ballpark figure.
Once you have determined your budget, you need to realize that there is no cutting corners. For example, if you use a really bad printer with bad reviews to print your marketing materials because they are cheap, you will get what you pay for. Here is where a third party consultant can help to point you in the right direction. Whether you bring them on for coaching on an hourly basis or they are going to run your strategy development and implementation so you don’t have to worry, it’s important to get to know who you’re working with so there is a high level of trust and communication. You want them to love your brand as much as you do.
Obviously, those in the last camp will be the ones who find their companies will grow. You aren’t going anywhere if you aren’t telling your story to someone. Who’s telling your story?