Marketings Dirty Little Secret
Ok so im out and about on a weekly basis meeting with SME's regarding their marketing investments and more loosely termed ADVERTISING.
Local businesses have so many options when it comes to promoting their services or product and there are these ADVeRTISING salesmen (yes i do mean you YELL, Thompson, and BT) out there regulalrly looking to pounce on you for your hard earned cash maximising on your investment so that they get there best 'commission' statement yet.
Let's break this down to what im realy getting at - Marketings Dirty Little Secret for those of you that haven't guessed, is quite simply ADVERTISING! (if there is anyone out there that thinks marketing and advertising mean the same thing THEN PLEASE OUTSOURCE YOU MARKETING FAST! YOUR THROWING YOUR MONEY AWAY!!!)
Advertising - is an element of your Marketing mix that involves immediate calls to action by consumers, a 'here today, gone tommorrow' concept. And week in week out i'm seeing local business wasting money on in-effective advertising campaigns in Pontypridd and Rhondda. And in some instances I am hearing horrific stories of Micro businesses spending thousands of pounds to get there message out there! CRAZY STUFF!
So why is ADVERTISING marketings dirty little secret i hear you ask? Quite simply - YOU do this now - grab your local paper, directory or last piece of junk that came through your door..... READ IT........ Apart from the business name and some services they explain about their business why should you use them?
The best part of Marketing Dirty Little secret is that only 50% of it works. In the words of Ford himself 'only 50% of marketing works, we just dont know which 50% it is'. (Bollocks - now we're screwed!)
With services such as caller tracking, google analytics and ASKING YOUR CUSTOMERS you can actually fnd that you will develop a pattern of whats working for you. However, SME still dont do this - why not? they believe they know the results without actually analysing them - basically they think they know the answer!
I could go on all day talking about area in which businesses are getting it wrong with regards to marketing - or they could email me at pontypridd@thebestof.co.uk and get a FREE marketing audit. Us franchisees are some of the most advanced local marketeers in the market place, but we pay for it! www.thebestof.co.uk offer train us on the latest thinking and whats working elsewhere around the UK - We dont do fancy letters like IOM (well maybe the odd MSc) but if you really are interested in getting more business then you need to be contacting your local thebestof.
RANT Over!
