The job of marketing is to increase your sales... plain and simple. You are investing in marketing because it should bring more customers through the door. And this means every dollar you spend on marketing should give you a positive return.
It's just like anything else you might invest in. If you buy an investment property you expect the value to go up. If you buy shares you expect the value to go up.
So why invest in marketing any differently? When you invest in marketing it should return value. You don't pay money for an accountant, stationary, vehicles, or offices and then not use them.
Can you handle the truth about marketing?
The truth is most marketing sucks. Marketing experts don't want you to know this but the fact is most marketing doesn't make money. That's why brand marketing was invented so they could create measurements that have nothing to do with sales.
Brand awareness or similar measures are a complete waste of time. So what if I know the name of your product? That doesn't mean I'm ever going to buy it.
It seems to me marketers are more worried about how you feel about a product than how many sales they get. And of course there are always marketing awards to be won that have nothing to do with sales. If you've hired a marketing or advertising company that is great at winning awards you should probably run the other way.
How to make money with your marketing in one easy step!
If you want to know if your marketing is working all you have to do is measure it. For every marketing effort you make you ask the obvious question "Did this bring me more sales?" In most cases you'll find the answer is no.
Once you have a piece of paper in front of you that says how much you spent and how many sales the marketing campaign brought in it changes the marketing game forever. Don't be fooled by experts that try to tell you it's unmeasurable either.
The fact is all marketing is measurable if it's done right. But this means you have to add one critical element to your marketing... an offer.
More on this mysterious offer thingy
In order for anything to be sold someone makes an offer. Usually in the form of "I'll give you $x for your product." This is the basis for all transactions in one form or another.
So doesn't it make sense to make an offer if you want to sell something? And doesn't it make even more sense to make an offer in your marketing? Just be aware that all offers are not created equal.
Does your offer pack a punch?
The worst (and most used) type of offer sounds something like this: "We are <insert your business here>." E.g.
- We are plumbers
- We are accountants
- We are a Chinese restaurant
These offers give absolutely not reason for the consumer to choose you over another business.
A better offer is: "We will give you <insert results here>." E.g.
- We will fix your plumbing problems
- We will lower your taxes
- We have great tasting authentic Chinese food
But those are rather generic so let's create a point of difference for why they should choose us and add a guarantee to show we actually mean it:
- We'll be hard at work fixing your plumbing one hour from your call... guaranteed
- If we can't find a way to lower your taxes our consultation is free
- If our Chinese food isn't the best you've had (outside of China!) we'll tear up the bill
Now obviously you want an offer you can deliver on but the bolder the claim combined with your ability to guarantee it will have customers beating a path to your door. That is... providing you don't make some other grievous marketing mistake. But that's why you're on this website... to learn how to avoid those mistakes.
What you do next
Decide you want marketing that makes money and decide how you can measure sales. Then come up with an offer to make your prospects and see the difference it makes to both response and your cash register. You'll soon find out marketing that makes money is a lot more fun than the alternative.
[...] Original post by The Marketing Outlaw Hideout [...]