For most small businesses, and many medium-sized ones, marketing is just too expensive to do. It feels like a black hole that you throw money into.

Many of these same businesses have tried their hand at marketing. Buying an ad in a local paper, or sending out coupons. Sometimes the company quits if the marketing doesn’t show obvious results. Or they just forget to continue. The marketing may have been successful, but they may have simply got busy with other things and let it fall away.

 

I can do it myself

Owners and executives usually wear too many hats to be able to be proactive with anything. Unfortunately, marketing is being proactive. To keep it going, you need someone who is focused on the marketing. You need someone dedicated to it.

When your company is busy, who needs marketing? When you’re not so busy, it’s often too late to start marketing. Why? Because you’re already concerned about your costs. Not as much money is coming in so you can’t afford to increase your costs. You’re often trying to cut costs.

The best time to start marketing is while you’re busy and the company is doing well. Unfortunately, that’s when you have the least amount of time.

At this point, you’ll have to ask yourself: Do I want a growing business or one that simply stays at the same level? That’s a trick question. A business either grows or shrinks. It never stays the same for very long.

 

You don’t have to hire a new employee

I’m assuming you chose a growing company. Okay. Great. What’s next then?

Hiring a dedicated marketer can be more than a company needs. The added costs of just the employee can take the whole marketing budget.

You can hire a freelancer to do it part-time on retainer. The cost can be minimal. And there’s no training required.

You get consistent marketing done. You keep your customers engaged with information of your company, products and services. Plus, you can let them know about deals, sales and new launches.

A freelancer can be hired on a project basis as well. But realize that once the project is done, you may forget to keep the marketing going. Or you might not see the results you want right away.

What about working with a freelancer on a retainer basis but only on a 6 months contract? That way, you give it enough time to see if it’s working. If not, you don’t renew the contract. You can try again with another freelancer.

 

First, you have to start…

The toughest part of any venture is to start.

There are several ways you can dip your toe in the frigid marketing waters:

  1. Talk to your sales people to see what they think and what their experience is with marketing
  2. The more you learn about marketing, the less intimidating it will be.
  3. Call a marketing agency or freelance marketer/writer. Get some input from them (research) and ask what steps you can take and what they will cost.

Plus, I’ll be posting more articles about some first steps you can take.

 

…and then keep it going

You need to make it a habit. That usually requires a champion to keep it going. It could be a sales person, office manager, or a freelancer. Someone needs to be responsible for keeping the marketing going and on track.

No matter where you start, realize that you’ll need a budget. You should come up with a budget for one year – 6 months at least. That will give you an idea of what types of marketing you can do. It will give you time to work out some bugs and see what results you can get.

Invest some money into it. Track your success. You’ll soon see the fruits of your labors and wonder why you didn’t start sooner.

I usually say that you should work with what you’re comfortable with. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work with marketing. Most people need to get out of their comfort zone to do marketing. Staying in your comfort zone doesn’t help you stand out from the competition and grow your business.

Marketing can be an annoying cost to take on. But if done properly and consistently, it can keep your business growing for many years to come.

 

Photo by Gift Habeshaw on Unsplash