In most cases, a one-off advert will not cover it’s costs.  And this is unfortunately what leads to most business owners being unhappy with marketing as a whole.  But, what they sometimes don’t realise is that there are many other marketing methods they can use; most of which are less expensive.  But they do require a bit more thought.

I’m afraid there is no magic marketing bullet that will bring you an inordinate amount of business overnight.  It’s a question of trying different methods and measuring your results.  But, we always recommend looking at the cheaper methods first – what difference could you make to your bottom line, for example, if you improved your customer retention by 10%?  Chances are that’s cheaper than looking for new customers.

By creating a plan, you can put some science to your marketing.  Henry Ford once famously said ‘I know 50% of my marketing spend is wasted – I just don’t know which 50%.’  My argument is that he should have known what was and wasn’t working – just by asking ‘How did you hear about us?’ you can reduce your spend in the areas that aren’t covering their costs and boost it in others.

One of our favourite customers did just this and re-allocated £5000 in advertising that wasn’t working, into a campaign that was generating results.  This year, his audience figures are up 18% on last year.  In the middle of a recession.

1. Failure to focus on a specific market because of poor research
2. Failure to control cash
3. Failure to control costs
4. Failure to adapt your product to meet customer needs
5. Failure to carry out decent market research
6. Failure to build a team that is compatible and has the skills to finance, produce, sell and market
7. Failure to pay taxes
8. Failure to try and grow
9. Failure to gain new markets
10. Under-capitalisation

No less than 50% of these reasons relate to marketing (and I would argue number 6 could also be included as marketing, from an internal point of view).  It makes sense to me, as I know how powerful marketing can be at boosting profits and helping companies grow.  But, if you’re not using marketing to its full potential, now would be a great time to start.