So Does It Make More Sense For Your Small Business To Market Or Advertise?
Since you are -most definitely- a profit seeking small business owner/entrepreneur, are you not? Which of your current assets, do you feel you should be investing more heavily in, and why?
Right now, for whatever reason(s), be they strictly emotionally and or financially based.You have decided, to use strategy and or tactic, X, Y or Z, in order to, (you basically) fill in the blanks.
Lead generate, cross promote, add/upsell and to consistently generate referrals and more extremely high grossing back end revenue of of some kind.
You didn’t just happen to decide you really liked this particular strategy or tactic, for consistently lowering your first time customer/patient acquisition costs, right? No way.
Something, some process and or outcome, or lack thereof 
, virtually compelled you, to draw the current conclusions, which you have, right?
So the $64,000 dollar question becomes, should you, based on your current skill set, knowledge base, real world experience(s), current ad/promotional budget and conversion rate figures.
Are you better off, investing more or your (traditional) and non traditional assets, marketing and or using some form of conventional advertising, of your extremely valuable products, and or services?
So How Do Some Semi Cash Strapped Small Business Owners And Or Service Providers Decide Whether To Invest More Heavily In Marketing And Or Traditional Advertising Methods?
Well, as previously mentioned above.Hopefully, this type of critically important decision, is not strictly being made, based on your current, emotional state of mind.
Because, depending on whether, you happen to be in semi panic mode, because things are so chaotic,(and your ship is temporarily sinking), or you’re currently riding the temporary euphoria, of starting something new.
Either extreme view, can temporarily skew your vision and hamper your normally reliable business making capabilities.
So ‘how’ about a good old fashion compromise, and based (at least) part, if not all of your decision, on ‘how’ effective, or non effective, either given course of action happens to be? Sound good? Great!
Being A Successful Entrepreneur Means Developing Good Sound Decision Making And Evaluation Skills? (Would You Not Agree?)
So at least some of you, already know my expert small business marketing coach, (the one and only!) Gail Gardner of growmap.com fame, correct? (And BTW, that’s growmap.com, not growmap.net! Just wanna give you a little heads up there!)
Gail helps aspiring entrepreneurs, startups/solo-preneurs, traditional and non traditional, Mom & pop small business owners and service providers, of all shapes and sizes, grow their businesses faster, and more profitably, on or offline.
And she is absolutely a much sought after coach,consultant and mentor, when it comes to social media marketing in general, and using twitter in particular. Because -to date-, she has a mere 108K twitter followers. And constantly growing!
Entrepreneur Your Resource Challenged Small Business Will Consistently Generate More Leverage From Strategic Marketing Than Traditional Advertising Methods!
Anyway, Gail is my -resident- go to small business expert consultant, whenever I need proven marketing, and entrepreneurial advice, and some real world perspective, on ‘how to, or not to proceed, with given potential strategy and process I might be currently contemplating using.
I definitely lean heavily on her extremely vast knowledge base and many developed resources for successfully growing, and maintaining your sanity, as you do so!
And because Gail wears many hats as the CEO of her own successful online venture, -which includes- her very successful blog.
She’s able to successfully outsource some of the much needed activities to others,(such as myself) for providing the much needed quality content to her steadily growing audience.
This is where I’m able to periodically return the favor, and provide my coach with quality ‘how to’ problem solving content, she can share with her steadily growing audience, while she devotes and dedicates her extremely valuable, albeit, extremely limited time, to other equally important areas of her business.
Being An Entrepreneur Means Being A Service Provider And Problem Solver.
And that free, massive marketing exposure, helps my personal brand go viral, a whole lot faster and easier, than I could ever hope to accomplish on my own!
Case in point, take a look at the two recent screenshot images below. They’re for, two of my latest posts, which are published on Gail-s blog. As of this writing, those blogs posts, aren’t even a week old, and they’ve already generated a nice amount of shares on some of the biggest social media sites.
The point being; sure you or I could pay for (either) some twitter or Facebook ads, right? But ladies & gentlemen, once the money stops flowing, guess what? So do your paid ad campaigns.
On the other hand, as more and more of Gail-s audience, (comes across) my or your guest blog post, it will continue to viral for free! Are you starting to appreciate the difference?
So Does It Make More Sense For Your Small Business To Market Or Advertise?
So Does It Make More Sense For Your Small Business To Market Or Advertise?
Your Small Business Definitely Should Use Traditionally Advertising!
But only after, you have maximized your revenue generating opportunities, available to you right now, from your various marketing strategies, tactics and or methods etc.
Otherwise, you’re grossly overpaying for various potential money making opportunities.Gail has personally coached me, and her other guest bloggers enough, that when it comes to letting us provide quality content to her audience, she trusts us to deliver!
And by consistently doing so, she can allocate her extremely limited time, focusing on other aspects of her business, and not have to feel the strain of wondering, when and if, she’ll have the time, to produce her own content.
Like she used to have to do, way back in the day. So you tell me entrepreneur, (given the option), do you prefer constantly reaching in your wallet, and paying for some type, potentially expensive advertising campaign?
Or strategically marketing your extremely valuable products and or services? I’ll bet most semi cash starved small business owners/startup-solo- entrepreneurs and or service providers, agree with you too?
P.S. Now as is customary during this part of our show.
Please share your extremely valuable comments (in the comments section below)
that you can apply to your business, product or service in the next 30 days or less!
As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Google Plus or tweet this.Thanks!
And be sure you grab your explosive free 22 step small business marketing idea kit series,
because it will help you increase your profits by as much as 25% in the next 90 days or less.
And help you master your effective communication in marketing skills.
(No matter what your particular niche market is.)It’s a $97 dollar value and it’s free!
As a former director of sales and marketing for a major visitor attraction I’ve used every form of communication to spread the good word, and I completely agree with your advice Mark. During my years working in the Hawaii travel industry, we focused heavily on marketing and PR by telling compelling stories, which is just one of the reasons I became so involved with the local culture. Advertising works, but only if you have a sharp brand image, are very clear about your target audience and know where they hang out, otherwise, you might as well take a match to your money. Thanks for the tips and motivation!
Marquita Herald recently posted…How to Make Peace With Your Inner Critic
That’s so true M!
And the other really important thing, semi cash strapped small
business owner, service providers and startup entrepreneurs have
to keep in mine.
Unless your pockets are awfully deep and you can afford to wait,
as you attempt to slowly build your brand and or image
in the market place.
The corporate branding route, is more like the slow moving
glacier at best!LOL!
Meanwhile, a ton of money will have left your bank account, and in all
likelihood, will never ever be seen again!LOL! Thanks so much
for taking the time to and share your thoughts!
I always appreciate and look forward to your
well thought out insights!
Mark Newsome recently posted…Three Potentially Profitable Reasons You Definitely Need Good Copy Writing Skills!