MARKETING MATTERS: TIPS AND TRICKS FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS AND GROWTH

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Is Marketing an Expense or an Investment?

 

By Rama Beerfas

 

May 1, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) –  There’s an old saying that 50% of  a business’ marketing expense is wasted. The question is, which 50% is it?

Admittedly, it can be difficult to track the success of a marketing campaign; even more so given the fact that most micro to mid-size businesses don’t set a specific goal, don’t put a definite call to action and/or don’t develop a metric that will allow them to measure the ROI and/or ROO on a given campaign.
 

The truth of the matter is that, the extra effort involved in:

  • determining your target market,
  • setting a specific goal for every marketing effort,
  • designing a call to action suited to that market and your end goal and then
  • developing and implementing a system to measure the desired outcome

will show the results (good and/or bad) of any given campaign.

This method also allows you to eliminate or tweak marketing efforts that don’t meet your expectations.

By developing a campaign that speaks to your target market and giving them a defined action to complete, your response rate will improve dramatically and your conversion rate will also show an increase. This is when the marketing expense evolves into an investment.

Of course, there are times that marketing just for marketing’s sake pays off handsomely. Studies have shown that companies that maintained or increased their marketing efforts during the Great Depression were more likely to come out on the other end as thriving businesses. Some statistics show that about 80% of the companies that kept their marketing budget intact or augmented it survived the Great Depression, while only around 20% of those companies that cut back on marketing were still viable when the economy turned around. For a more detailed look at this, go to http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20822.asp. 

When the economy is down, it is vital to keep up with your previous marketing efforts - if only to convince your current and potential customers that your company is still alive and kicking. I can personally attest to this, as Lev Promotions’ client base has grown at double the normal rate over the past three years as some of our competitors’ have created the perception that they wouldn’t be in business much longer because they were no sending out their regular marketing messages. These competitor’s clients continued to see ours, though, and felt that we would continue to be there to service their needs. Their perception became reality as some of those competitors closed their doors due to lack of business.

That’s when marketing is an investment!

Rama Beerfas is Chief Solutions Specialist for San Diego-based Lev Promotions, offering complete marketing services from consulting, promotional products, and social media marketing, editorial work and more. Rama also offers seminars and training in marketing and customer service related topics. She can be reached at (619) 697-2045 or at rama@levpromotions.com or visit www.levpromotions.com. Column requests and comments are welcome.


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