Marketing is everywhere. You pick up your Apple iPhone to turn your alarm off. You use your Colgate toothbrush to brush your teeth. You put on your North Face jacket, drink your Starbucks coffee, get in your beat-up Buick, and drive past an average of 23 billboards before you get to the office. And that’s just your first hour.
First of all, congratulations on being one of the few that realizes the great effect marketing can have on a business. Second of all, what the heck do you do from here?! It’s not like you have the budget of Coca-Cola…
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain
You don’t have to unite two countries in order to have good marketing. It all starts with getting started. Start with the best practices and go from there. Have you set up all of your social media accounts? Have you began creating content? Are you engaging with your audience? Do you know who your audience is? It can seem intimidating at first, but consistently put yourself out there and you will see results. Need some help getting started? Check out Woodrow Studio’s blog on Facebook business tips.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.” Seth Godin
Your product may be great, but do you have an engaging story to tell? That may sound absurd, but have you ever thought, “Wow, I could definitely use something to raise my feet while I use the bathroom.” Chances are, no. Because you are a normal human. However, Squatty Potty told a story that made people realize that they do need their product. If nothing but to laugh about it.
“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” Henry Ford
When times are tough the first thing to go is physical education, music, and of course, marketing. There will always be a reason to cut back on marketing spend, but you should really be fighting for a larger budget. As a general rule of thumb, companies should spend around 5 percent of their total revenue on marketing to maintain their current position. That’s right, you have to spend 5%just to stay where you are at! Companies looking to grow or gain greater market share should budget a higher percentage.
“Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.” — Dan Zarrella
You need data. It is as simple as that. If you run a promotion company specializing in shirts, pens, and chapstick, it is important to know the profit of each one. Knowing the profitability of each product helps you know which products to focus your marketing efforts on. To figure out the profitability of a product you would subtract the cost of goods sold from the price the item is being sold for.
Product Profitability = Price of Product X — Cost of Product X
Marketing can be scarier than when you started your company, but you’ve made it this far…😀
