When it comes to promoting your company and bringing in customers, you’ll receive a lot of advice, both good and bad. Unfortunately, there’s a wealth of myths propagated by mostly well-meaning folks about small business marketing.
Let’s take a look a 3 of them.
Myth 1 – Marketing is an expense you can cut to save money.
Myth 2 – Marketing is a “one-and-done” thing.
Myth 3 – Small business owners need to be a Jack/Jill of all trades.
Below, we’ll examine each one in detail, as well as what to do instead.
Myth 1 – Marketing is an expense you can cut to save money
A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time. As such, you shouldn’t cancel marketing services whenever you need to save some cash. Instead, you need to think of it as an investment, and not a cost.
Just like your business needs accounting to operate, marketing is necessary for the long-term sustainability of the company.
Still not convinced? Here are some ways to help you see Marketing as an investment:
You put money into it and see the return through leads, sales, or some form of conversion.
Sometimes it can take time to see the value of your marketing efforts increase
Recent research shows that companies earn on average, $2 for every $1 they invest in Google Ads.
Moreover, according to the Content Marketing Institute, using content marketing garners 3x more leads than paid search advertising.
Plus, Google owns at least 94% of search and 78% of people who perform location-based searches on mobile wind up making a purchase.
With numbers like these, rather than saving you money, not investing in marketing could mean you’re losing out on sales.
Just like any investment, sometimes you have to make adjustments. As you’re marketing, you might see some things work, while others don’t. That’s OK. Don’t give up.
If you’re not marketing, you’re not growing.
Myth 2 – Marketing is a one-and-done thing
So, you’ve invested in a website and local SEO. Now that you see a difference in traffic to your site, and an increase in leads and sales, it doesn’t mean you should cancel services from your online marketing company. If you do, you might lose all the gains you saw from your investment.
You never reach “the end” with marketing because once you reach the goals you’ve set, it’s time to set new ones. That is how you maintain growth.
If you’re not continuously benchmarking and adjusting your business will remain stagnant and might not be sustained in the long run.
Just like you need to put in routine supply orders every so often, you have to keep up with your marketing efforts for your business to see the difference.
Review what you “ordered” last time.
Analyze how well that worked and what you can do differently – your account manager can go over this information with you.
Make adjustments as necessary.
Repeat.
Marketing requires maintenance, time, optimization, and follow-through to see results.
Myth 3 – Small business owners need to be a Jack/Jill of all trades
You’re a small business owner, and as such, you probably wear many hats.
You might manage the everyday operations as well as working the register. You might even handle your own accounting and do all the supply orders.
You may be an expert on running your business, but when it comes to marketing, let someone else be the expert.
DIY marketing campaigns, especially without extensive knowledge, can be a disaster.
They are time-consuming, time that you don’t have because you’re busy running a business.
Marketing campaigns are not one size fits all. Even though it’s reasonable to make adjustments as needed throughout a campaign, an expert will have a better idea of where to start.
You need to know how to analyze the results. When it’s time to make adjustments, a marketing professional will be able to quickly look at the data and decide what the best next course of action is.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re not going to see a return on your investment.
Unless you’re a plumber, you won’t fix a broken sewer line yourself. You’d call a professional instead.
Marketing firms are not only professionals trained in this field to grow your business, but they are also going to take work off your plate.A good marketing firm will walk you through the process and explain what they’re doing and why.
You genuinely don’t have to do it all to be an effective business owner. By hiring the right people to help you, monitoring and adjusting what’s working, and learning to see marketing as an investment, rather than an expense, you’ll be the one busting those marketing myths.
What are some myths about marketing for small businesses you’ve come across? Tell us about them in the comments below.
