Marketing is the act of persuading people to buy a product or service.
And its not just any specific product or service – you need to convince customers to buy YOUR product or service instead of a similar one from another company.
It goes without saying that marketing is getting harder and harder. Not only is competition fierce, but technology and the digital world are ever-changing. For example, the introduction of GDPR, last year has given marketers a whole new challenge and nailing down a marketing strategy in 2019 is like trying to hit a moving target.
For agencies and marketers, the toughest part of making a sale is talking about money. Most organisations will be wary of where to apply the bulk of their budget since there are many different channels and strategies in which to invest.
Here’s the thing, though – every company needs marketing. Whether you have a product, service or an idea, it requires support and encouragement to make its way into the world.
Its no secret that growth is a key part of our culture here at WSI. When we work with new clients, a key partnership characteristic that we look for is the client’s desire to grow their business. We love taking a client’s idea and putting the necessary marketing supports in place to help make the idea a reality. Typically we work with larger organisations who have clear marketing goals and budgets already defined. Lately, however we’ve worked with a few companies who are new to the idea of digital expenditure.
As with many things in life, all that’s required is a change of perception.
At the end of the day, everybody, including marketers, needs to view marketing as an investment, not an expense. Here are a few points that I hope will change the minds of at least a couple of businesses.
Great Marketing Doesn’t Cost Money, It Makes Money
If I asked you to give me €5,000 today and I could guarantee I’d give you back €10,000 in 30 days, would you give me the money? It’s not a trick and I can’t steal your money. It’s a straight trade of 30 days without your €5,000 for a 100% return on your investment.
The only reason not to accept would be that you can’t justify a blind investment of €5,000 without genuine proof of attainable profit. But maybe you would want to trial the service for €2,500 with a similarly predicted ROI. Given all these parameters, it’s a no-brainer. You can’t lose.
Marketing is the same deal. If you engage with the right kind of agency, marketing won’t cost you money in the long run – it’ll make you money. Like in the example above, you have to part with your cash in the initial stages and put your trust in sensible and well-practiced predictions, but you’re likely to see a big return on that investment.
If it’s so obvious, why isn’t marketing an easy sell? Again, we’re back to positioning and perception. Some marketing agencies promise way too much ‘return on investment.’ When they don’t deliver within their promised time frame, the relationship sours.
But some agencies don’t promise anything in fear of falling short. This makes selling marketing solutions harder because there’s no visible benefit for the buyer.
It might seem like an irreconcilable difference, but there’s actually an easy solution to this problem…
Reverse Engineering Your Goals
The key to any digital strategy is understanding the goals of your business. Let’s say a goal is a certain number of sales on site.
Your average sale yields €100 and you wanted to accumulate revenue of €5,000. So you need 50 sales.
The trick here is to see what amounts to this in terms of site goals. Perhaps the conversion rate per visitor is 10% so to get the 50 sales, you need 500 visitors.
So if it’s easy to consider that an investment of €2,500 will net them 500 visitors, you could just as easily predict the overall ROI.
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Marketing is an investment in your brand and its idea. Similar to how a gym membership is an investment in your health, and a savings account is an investment in your financial future, marketing is an investment in your business.
At WSI, we believe every big idea has merit. It’s our job to take big ideas – ones just like yours – and help them realize their full potential by harnessing the power of digital technology.
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