No Money for Marketing – What’s Your Excuse?

By Jean McIntyre

Marketing Angels

Jean McIntyre

If you’ve got bright goals for where you want to take your business then marketing is the tool to get you there – but many businesses just won’t make that investment.  Jean Mc talks about the 5 worst excuses businesses give for not investing in marketing.

I’ve done it myself.  I’m in the shopping centre and walk past my dentist or my car mechanic – even the lady from Weight Watchers many years ago – walk over the other side and bow my head in guilt and shame because I know I haven’t come up to what I know they expect of me.

I get the same from business people who have talked to me about marketing.  They avoid me because they don’t want me to know that they haven’t done what they need to do to move their business forward.

I’m sure my dentist would say “Well it’s your teeth”, the mechanic “It’s your expensive car”.  I say to business people “it’s our business you are hurting by not marketing”.

When people give me excuses it’s usually one of 5 reasons:

1. Marketing is just another cost among many I’d rather not pay

This way of thinking is what separates out entrepreneurs from people who’ve just bought themselves a job.

An entrepreneur is someone who is clear about what they want their business to achieve.  They have faith in their product and their own ability to achieve their goals.  They have planned the path they need to take to build their business and KNOW that if they invest what’s required  that they’ll reap the rewards.

Entrepreneurs invest in legal and accounting advice.  They will register to protect their intellectual property.  They’ll spend the money to make sure they have their staffing right.  They often have business coaches under contract and any other experts they think can help them to achieve their goals.

Most importantly entrepreneurs understand that they need marketing to raise awareness of their brand in their chosen markets, to generate new customers and to strengthen relationships with existing customers.

2.  I don’t need marketing – word of mouth works for me

This excuse shows a lack of understanding of how marketing works.  For a start – word of mouth only works with an established business with a good reputation and excellent brand awareness.

Growing through word of mouth is a very slow process.  It relies on excellent products (goods and services) and fantastic customer relations.

To make word of mouth work you first need to understand your market, develop products that meet their needs, create language and messages that connect with them and develop lots of brand advocates to help you pass those messages on.

You need to make sure you take charge and that when people are passing on good word about your business they are saying what you want them to say to the people you want them to say it to.

That requires a good marketing strategy.

3. Things are tough right now – I need to prioritise

It’s when things are tough that businesses need marketing more than ever.

Things are tough for your competitors as well .  You need to make sure you continue to promote your business and maintain customer relationships so you are top of their minds and they are likely to choose you over your competitors.

Yes there are lots of things about marketing that are costly (such as advertising)  but there are many things that a marketer can help you plan for that cost very little or nothing to implement.  You can explore online strategies, product development or re-packaging and pricing, new distribution methods, reward programs, public relations and many other strategies that cost very little but can make a big impact in tough times.

4. Marketing is easy – I can do it myself

It’s true.  Marketing isn’t rocket science but it takes a lot of time and energy to do well.

If you don’t currently have the capacity to generate revenue with your time then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t spend it doing your own marketing.

If that’s not the case then you need to weigh up whether spending 12 hours of your time doing what a marketer could achieve in 4 hours is the best use of your resources.

There is however some added value that a marketer can bring that you may not have in your own kitbag:

What a marketer brings:

• Up to date knowledge of the latest tactics that have worked for other firms
• A good list of suppliers and introductions to strategic alliances that can best deliver on your requirements
• Current knowledge of market trends
• Useful online and other tools for more efficient marketing
• Good writing and language skills
• Sounding board – offering an external, independent, objective opinion – someone who won’t get caught up in the “politics” of the business
• Research – customers will tell an outsider things they wouldn’t tell you
• A structured approach – to help you download all that fabulous info and ideas in your head and channel them into a realistic plan.
• Greater awareness of the real cost of marketing implementation
• Realistic priority setting – i.e. not what you like to do best, but what is most important to achieving results
• Flexibility – someone you can call on as and when you need to

5. My business is doing well – I don’t need marketing

This goes along with point 3.

I can’t count the number of times recently that people have said “I wish I’d put resources into marketing when things were good to carry me through the tough times”.

The most important thing you can do for your business is to do a marketing plan and then use that plan to set a marketing budget.  Once you know what you need to spend on marketing to achieve your goals – you can put that aside so that you are able to keep your marketing activity going through all eventualities.

It’s about making hay while the sun shines.  When things are good – invest in building brand awarness and growing your customer base – that gives you something to draw on when times get tough.

So What’s Your Excuse

If you have a business that’s more than just a job – that you want to grow and thrive and perhaps sell for a profit – you need to ask yourself the question “Am I putting enough resources into marketing to achieve my goals?”

If your answer is NO then you need to put time in your diary to contact your marketer and get cracking!

I’d be interested to hear your stories about how investing in marketing has paid off for you.

Jean Mc

PS:  I’ll be at the National Tally Room on Saturday – celebrating I hope!