A Guide to Evaluating Marketing ROI

As a business owner, you've no doubt heard the saying, "You've got to spend money to make money." This is true, especially when it comes to marketing a business. Unless you invest in marketing, no one will hear about or know your business exists. Agreed?

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On a Shoestring Budget: Low-Investment and No-Investment Ways to Market Your Business

One of the biggest misconceptions for the small or mid-sized business is that you must have a multi-million dollar marketing budget to garner a strong brand awareness that brings in the customers. This is simply not true. A successful marketing campaign starts with a well-formulated marketing plan and includes implementing that plan frequently and consistently. Even in a slow economy, it's important to invest in marketing. And, if you make a commitment to getting your business' message out to your target audience, you’ll be able to take the market share from your competition.

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Thriving in a Competitive Business Environment

Nationwide business owners are either working harder to thrive or they are cutting back to survive. Increased competition and economic uncertainties, often trigger business owners to cut back on their investment in marketing and advertising. While it may seem like a good idea in the short-term, this is a decision that can end up being quite costly...even deadly to your business.

Instead of cutting back, keen business owners are using the tight economy as an opportunity to re-think and re-work their product and service offerings. One of the most important things these business owners are doing is saturating every marketing and advertising venue with their message. After all, what better time to get the word out when other businesses are cutting back?

Slow and steady wins the race. And little actions over time add up to give you a big impact. When figuring out what you want to do with your company next year, here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Develop a plan. It is always surprising how many small companies neglect to do any kind of business or marketing planning. Figure out where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Then write the plan down and update it periodically.
2. View marketing as an investment. The more you strategically market to the people who need your product or service, the more customers you will attract.
3. Evaluate what you are currently doing to make sure the money you are spending on building your business is working for you. Don’t use strategies just because they are part of a traditional marketing program. Focus your efforts on a program that will get you the best results.
4. Stop using strategies that are not working, and always remember to test and measure so you know whether you are effectively reaching your target audience.
5. Review your marketing message. You want to be certain it clearly and concisely demonstrates “What’s in it for me?”.
6. Don’t forget to have fun. If you love what you do and have fun doing it, you will have no choice but to succeed.
   

Tips for a Tough Economy

Our Profit-Driven Tips E-Newsletter just went out and it's got a lot of valuable information on how to generate business in a tough economy. Sticking with what's worked for you in the past and capitalizing on your existing customer database is where you'll be most effective.

The e-newsletter also talks about how you can have a positive outlook in a negative economy. It's hard to avoid the doom and gloom of the news, but your positive attitude helped bring you to this point in your business. Don't lose sight of your strengths now!

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Small Business Optimism

A recent CBS report indicated small business optimism is continuing to decline. Unfortunately, this is the reality of doing business in the current economic climate, and for the business featured in the CBS interview, it comes despite aggressive marketing.



Does this mean marketing dollars have been wasted? Absolutely not! Can you imagine what this business owner's outlook would be if he wasn't aggressively marketing his business? In a tight economy, it's a tough decision to market aggressively, especially when business owners need to find ways to cut back. But drastically reducing or eliminating marketing is like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Instead of eliminating or greatly reducing their investment in marketing, business owners should seriously consider evaluating how their marketing dollars are performing for their company. Many may not want to admit this, but it's a prudent idea to have an expert in marketing help with this task. That way, a business owner can be confident any revisions to the marketing plan will be favorable toward maximizing ROI.

Remember, marketing is an investment (not an expense) that is vitally important if you want to remain in business.