Any successful business owner knows how important marketing is. Even if you have a miniscule budget, it’s important to make sure that people know about your business. If you don’t, it’s going to be hard to make any sales.
It’s easy to overlook marketing altogether – But it’s also easy to overdo it. Business owners who have “marketing delusions” face problems as well. Overspending on marketing can eat into your profits, possibly even destroying your business. And it’s also possible that if you market too heavily, people will begin to tune you out.
There are several possible reasons for marketing delusions:
Market Share – Business owners become overly concerned about market share – Having a good amount of market share is great, but it’s not the be all and end all of being in business. You don’t have to crush the competition to make profits and grow your business.
They believe that more is better – Whether it’s running full-page ads in the newspaper every week or buying numerous commercial slots on the radio, some marketers feel that the more they’re seen and heard, the better. Name recognition is a wonderful thing, but your market could get tired of hearing the same message over and over.
Too Much Noise – Business owners believe that every new product, price change, display rearrangement or procedure improvement needs to be shouted from the rooftops. While it’s smart to use discounts and exciting news about your store, service or website to gain recognition, there is such a thing as overkill.
Targeting Efforts – Marketers aren’t targeting their efforts to the right market segment – If you’re not marketing to the people who want and need what you have to offer, you might as well be whistling in the wind. But some do not realize this and simply throw more money into advertising without thinking more carefully about who they are advertising to.
Leads – They go after the same leads for too long – While it’s important to make multiple contacts, there comes a point after which you’re just wasting your time. Rather than continuing to spend money pursuing leads that have shown zero interest, why not find some new ones with potential?
Measuring Results – Marketers may not be measuring the results of their campaigns properly – It’s essential to evaluate the success of every campaign so that you can adjust it if needed, and so you’ll have information on what works and what doesn’t for future reference. If you don’t, it’s easy to overspend on campaigns that aren’t doing well.
Expenses – Marketing madness can result in unnecessary expenses and burnout – By carefully evaluating all of your marketing endeavors, you can avoid wasting money on things that do not work and get better results for your marketing dollars.
Sometimes it pays to market smarter, not harder.
Good points – thanks.
Personally I’ve found it’s important to remember to market constantly – even if only at a low level.
I’ve made the classic mistake of marketing until I had as much work as I could handle then concentrating on the work and neglecting my marketing. I worked flat out for a few months to fullfilled all my contracts… then realised that I’d not got any more work lined up and my marketing wasn’t up to date. In what I do (we train people in presenting and public speaking) there’s often a fairly long lag between marketing and invoicing, so it was a bit of a problem!
Mind you – I’ve learned my lesson now! 🙂
Simon
Vera:
You threw me off with that one…for a moment. I’ve never, ever had to tell a client they’re over-marketing!
I agree completely with your concept, however. Sometimes, the “marketing” – meaning the activity, not the message – can overwhelm your brand. I believe car dealers have dug themselves into that hole…and it’s deep.
Brand management, on the other hand, should be constant and consistent…always telling the same story, representing the organization in the same manner so that there are no surprises to the brand’s fans.
I believe that strong brand management – being who you are all the time – will actually lower your “marketing” expenses because you don’t have to “tell” your audience anything…they just know it!
-Mark