How do you choose where to spend your marketing dollars?
Every business needs a marketing budget as you will struggle to gain exposure and more clients without some form of advertising.
But, you should be choosing the advertising methods that are effective. The ones you know will show a return and will not simply waste your hard earned money.
So, how can you choose those methods? It is no good simply following a hunch as you could end up being wrong – wasting both time and money.
Instead, you should follow the simple steps of getting the basics right by nurturing existing clients and leads, undertaking research into the best marketing channels for your business, and using the information gained to show a real return on your investment.
Let’s explore these concepts further.
Get The Basics Right
I have mentioned time and time again that email marketing is one of the best marketing strategies you can implement in your business.
Here’s why…
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It is targeted communication with people who have an interest in your business
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You control the message you distribute and when you communicate it
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You are guaranteed to get your message to every person on your email list
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People expect to receive information via email – it is familiar to them
Probably the biggest reason why sending a newsletter every month is so effective is because you develop a relationship of trust with your readers over time. If you are constantly providing them with valuable and interesting information that helps them solve issues in their life or business, then they are going to become very fond of you.
Once they have that fondness and trust, it is an easy step to convert them to a paying client. But newsletter marketing can be time consuming, so you might want to consider outsourcing the process to the experts here at Big Rock.
Research The Market
Everyone is doing Google Adwords, so I should be doing it too right?
That’s what my colleague Campbell Hastie from Go To Guys thought. Campbell is a mortgage broker and wants to expand his business by helping people to refix their mortgage rates. A lot of Campbell’s business revolves around new mortgages, but he wants to educate people that a mortgage broker can really help when their fixed rates come up for renewal.
He wanted to reach people through Google Adwords and was willing to invest $3,000 a month to do it. But that was until he met Phil Dunbar.
Phil runs Market Knowledge – a business that helps you to research where you should place your advertising dollars to get in front of your ideal clients. Phil helped Campbell to survey 200 of his ideal clients and found that Adwords was not the way to reach them at all. Collaborative marketing with others in his industry was.
With one research exercise, Phil saved Campbell from wasting $40,000 on advertising that would not have been effective for his business.
Using The Research
Whether you choose to use the knowledge and expertise of a company like Market Knowledge or do your own research, you need to do something with the results.
There are many channels that you can reach people through. Google Adwords could have put Campbell’s business in front of thousands of people every month and billed him for the privilege. But the research proved that those people would not have been Campbell’s ideal client.
Even if they were, Campbell would then have fallen into the trap of scrapping over a very small number of people who are ready to take action now. Only 3% of all people are ready to buy from your business on first contact. And that number is actually much less when you factor in the number of competitors clambering for their business too.
To be honest, it is not worth wasting your time on that 3%, let your competitors waste their time instead. While you focus on the long term direct marketing methods that will produce real results for your business, your competition can compete on price for that tiny percentage of the market.
Then, you can laugh all the way to the bank by using the more effective marketing methods you uncover with your research. Confirm your assumptions before you follow them, it will end up saving you thousands in the long run!
If you are ready to start nurturing some long term relationships with your existing clients and potential leads, then get in touch with us here at Big Rock to see how newsletter marketing could work for your business.