Marketing is a bit like marmite. You either see its value and purpose, or you don’t. In the B2B world particularly, this translates to either seeing the benefit of developing a long-term marketing strategy, or demanding short term, high impact tactics when the enquiries/orders stop coming in, writes Jag Panesar, Founder of Yorkshire marketing agency Xpand.
Unfortunately, with the rising cost of living and inflation, the latter is becoming the more dominant of the two. Brands with no prior marketing activity are coming out of the woodwork desperate to race competitors to be at the top of Google, throwing money at boosted posts and paid advertising with little thought about the customer journey and more.
And the government’s suggestion to cut marketing budgets didn’t help – pushing those few who do still have political confidence, to review their spending to allow them to manage costs for customers. Of course, the sentiment is great, but what confidence does that give the public in marketing?
The harsh reality is, the companies that will survive the economic crisis are those who’ve invested in long-term marketing as part of their business plan, building their brand over time and engaging with their audience on a regular basis. It might sound harsh, but look at this way, would you purchase from a company you knew nothing about and failed to find any digital footprint for at a time when every penny spent must count? I think not.
Marketing isn’t an emergency service. It needs to stop being treated like a rescue mission.
Urging brands to cut marketing… through marketing?!
First things first, I must mention how utterly contradictory it is to urge brands to cut marketing budgets by launching a marketing campaign. Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money have been spent on developing said campaign to encourage brands to get involved. Putting this simply, they want people to take action, so they are using multiple channels to communicate a specific message, ensuring it’s received at multiple touch points.
What they’ve failed to recognise is what drives customers to purchase from brands in the first place. To assume that price is the only factor that comes into the decision-making process is delusional. Furthermore, assuming marketing budget is the biggest overhead in business is again, way off the mark.
Quick win tactics don’t work…and they’re costly
Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand the desire to generate an instant result – especially given the current times, but in marketing, if you’re just ‘switching on’ chances are you’re not going to get the results you desire. And in all honesty, probably will end up spending far more than the cost of a long-term strategy chasing those results.
Think of it this way. You want to develop a new product. Do you skip a good chunk of the development phase just to get the product on the market? Of course not. You take the time to make sure the product is fully suitable for the market, so that when it does launch, there aren’t extra costs associated with fixes, updates and customer claims.
The same applies with marketing. You must take your time to develop your brand so that when a potential customer does come across you, they get the sense of security that their money won’t be wasted when spending with you. Sure, there’s an initial upfront investment of time and funds, but this investment allows you to create solid foundations that will lead to sustainable growth – and a bigger ROI (return on investment) for you.
To put this into context, let’s say you launch a product and decide to run an advert to generate traffic to your product page. It might be a brilliant product and a really targeted advert with a striking image that does make potential customers want to click. When they click on the ad, they do so to find out more. At this point, your ‘no marketing’ approach starts to become apparent.
There are no reviews of your product for the customer to look at, so they head to look for case studies. Whoops. No case studies. Ok, they really do like the product but feeling a little nervous, so they head to check you out on social media. Yep, zilch. You’re not active. And there we have it. You’ve run ads to generate quick wins, but in fact you’ve ended up paying to lose a potential customer (the cost per click). When you consider why you ran them in the first place – to generate much needed revenue – losing money just isn’t an option.
My tip? Don’t run ads until you’ve considered the customer journey and developed the right content for every touch point in that journey.
On and off marketing sends the wrong message
Nobody likes flakiness, let’s be honest. Yet many businesses are unknowingly making themselves seem flaky. How? By being on and off with their marketing. At a time when customers want reliability and peace of mind amongst other things, being known as a trustworthy brand is key.
There used to be a time when excellent customer service and a fair price alone would be enough for customers, but that time has now passed. Beyond these requirements, customers expect at the very least to witness your proactivity through personalised online experiences and valuable content across a variety of digital channels.
If your approach to marketing is a quick post on social media every now and then, or a blog once in a blue moon, you’re not going to meet those expectations. Instead, your customers will make the assumption they’ll get the same flakiness if they buy from you.
Long term strategy wins, every time
There’s nothing at all wrong with making the sudden decision to start marketing – everyone has to start somewhere. But don’t leave it until you’re in a position when you NEED to increase your revenues, fast. Realise marketing’s value way before it hits crunch point. One of the best ways to do this is to develop a marketing strategy as part of your business plan.
According to Co-Schedule’s latest marketing report, marketers were 414% more likely to report success with their marketing when they had a documented strategy in place. What’s more, those who had planned their activity in advance and thought about their output were 313% more likely to be successful. Powerful hey?
So, how can you get started? Research your audience, see what messages resonate with them and what they expect from a company like yours. Uncover which channels they are using and how you can meet their needs at every touch point. Being strategic in this way will lead to sustainable growth.
