By Sarah Jane Valentine
When you hear the word marketing, what do you think… posters and advertisements? Some sort of logo design? Or maybe even that’s someone else’s job? Unfortunately, all of these can apply, but when it comes to good marketing nothing could be further from the truth!
For a long time marketing for small businesses has had a pretty bad press. Something you really go for at the start to make sure everyone knows your name and then once you’ve got a bit of recognition and business is ticking over that’s it. After all no one really wants to invest money in marketing when the company is doing well and how you do track what you get back for it. In these times of austerity no one has cash to splash on a frivolous extra. Then when times become a little less hard, the odd penny here and there may or may not be thrown in the general direction of “marketing” like it’s a necessary evil. Sound familiar?
Well what if you look at marketing as an investment rather than an expenditure? We’re always keen to invest in our companies, be it with money, people or time, to allow it to grow, so looking at marketing as a similar investment puts things in a different perspective.
Coca Cola is a great example of this. Probably one of the world’s most recognised brands and also probably one of the biggest investors in marketing activity, pumping billions into their campaigns every year. They don’t stop because they’ve hit the big time, they keep investing because they want to stay in the big time.
Coca Cola look at marketing as food rather than medicine and that’s exactly what it is. By undertaking sustained and strategic marketing you feed your company the 3 square meals a day it needs to grow. However, if you look at marketing as a reactionary activity or a medicine if you like, that you only administer when the books are looking under the weather, you’ll find that you won’t sustain the healthy activity you had and in fact you may find things go the other way.
You don’t need a billion dollar budget like Coca Cola to make your marketing activity have impact. In fact, with the rise in social media, it’s never been cheaper to get your brand out there. Bringing innovative ideas and boosting your brand is as easy as, well… it’s as easy as writing this blog post! Enjoy marketing, embrace it and invest in it. Trust me, you’ll begin to love it and in turn, love your well-nourished company and healthy profits!
RBL is helping its clients grow profitably through a wide range of support initiatives and services. Please feel free to call us on 02895 320155 to discuss how we can help to build your business value.