Stop Spending Money on Dumb Marketing
by Josh Amidon
I hate seeing money wasted on marketing that’s ineffective. Hate it with a white hot seething passion. In fact, on the list of things I hate the most, “spending money on ineffective marketing” ranks just before “truck commercials that assume I know what torque means” and just after “anything that requires a battery size that isn’t AA.”
Marketing budgets for small businesses are already tight and you just don’t have the time or money for things that don’t work. Here’s a list of the most common ways small businesses lose money with bad marketing:
Using social media to build a following. Don’t get me wrong, social media is SUPER important in small business, but you need to be doing something with your followers besides “building a following.” What are you doing with that loyal base - sending them to your website? Converting them to sales? Getting them to talk about you to their friends? If the answer is no to any of those questions, you’re wasting your time and money.
Doing any big one-time ad campaign. There’s thousands of cool things to try in marketing. Some of them work great, but most of them don’t - especially if you’ve only got one shot to make them work. Don’t spend your entire marketing budget on one marketing vehicle, you’ll lose every time.
Not changing your marketing strategy. Marketing evolves fast these days. Try a couple new marketing tactics every year and measuring what works and what doesn’t. If marketing is evolving, you do too.
Changing your marketing strategy and not giving it time to catch on. Just as wasteful as not changing your marketing strategy is not giving your evolving strategy time to grow. Don’t ever expect immediate results.
If you ever want to talk about your marketing budget and cheaps ways to grow your business - please don’t hesitate to reach out at (315) 258-8780 or josh@asterfg.com. In the meantime, here’s a list of other things I hate:
- Any television show where I have to “just make it through the first two seasons” before it gets good.
- The fact that you have to be some sort of wizard to put the string back into a hoodie once it comes out.
- Chain restaurants that ask if you’ve ever been there before, like they’re some sort of rare experience and not just another peddler of chicken tenders and dry house salads.
- Clicking on a 20 second video, but having to watch a 45 second commercial first.
- Putting a coat on over a long sleeve shirt and having the shirt’s sleeve roll up to your elbow.
- The episodes of Saved by the Bell with Tori on them instead of Kelly and Jessie.
- Sending a text to someone and seeing the message turn green instead of blue.(something only iPhone users will know).
