Marketing is not a Solution.
Recognizing and utilizing the tools you have will help you create solutions.
It is one of the most frustrating things I hear from clients and other business owners.
"If we just had more money to spend on marketing..."
I once actually had the President of a company tell me that if he could only raise $500,000 for marketing the company would be saved. But in the same moment he couldn't tell me why his company was failing now, what "marketing" would do for him, what "marketing" was, or what it would deliver to the bottom line. It is such a common mistake that people make, simply because they don't know better, or sometimes because they are just out of options and think that throwing money at the problem will fix it.
It's exactly like the myth that a website is like Field of Dreams - If You Build It, They Will Come... A website is not a magical spell that will bring customers through your door. It is a tool in your toolbox that you have to understand both what it is, and how to use it. Every aspect of your business is a tool. Every person, every relationship, every connection, every skill, every bit of knowledge. All can be leveraged to provide value to support and grow your business, if you have the ability to recognize what you have, what you need, and how to put it to work. And a tool left unused is as useless as a tool you don't have. Too often businesses have the tools they need to accomplish their goals, but they are either not using them properly, or not using them at all.
Shifting the way you perceive the tools you have may show you new ways of communicating your message to clients, or new ways of using your products in your clients' world.
I had one of my favorite moments with a client recently. I watched the lights turn on as I introduced a new concept, and the excitement as he realized how he could use this concept in his business. He had the tools to take the next step, but hadn't been looking at it in a way that could generate significant income. By shifting the way he used what he had, he saw how he could realize the potential in his business. Ironically, he's in marketing, and the rule still applies.
In this instance it was simply to shift his thinking from selling his clients an introduction tool, to showing them how they could use his product as a referral tool. This immediately accomplished two things. It created a striking difference between his pitch and his competitors in a saturated market. And it gave his clients a measurable, tangible way to gauge the value of what they were spending, which his competitors also don't have.
He didn't have to spend any more money on messaging. He didn't have to create a new advertising campaign. He didn't have to retrain or hire new staff. He simply changed the way he thought about his own offer, and changed the way he proposed that offer to potential customers. In the end it will also change the message and method of his marketing, and allow the marketing he is doing to more directly and actively contribute to building his business.
People treat marketing as if it's the fix for all that ails a business, and yet it's one of the most expensive things you can do, usually with a nebulous and hard to quantify return. Throwing half a million dollars at the company I first mentioned would be like throwing gas on a fire, burning through the already scarce resources, and amplifying the problems!
Marketing is an essential and integral part of business. But it is not the solution to every problem. It is a tool in your arsenal. Take the time to understand what it is, how it fits into your overall strategy, and how best to utilize it to drive value into your business.
Ben Beveridge
VP, Business Development
Archer Business Development Solutions
Archer Business Development Solutions
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