Excerpt from CPR For Your Business
“Marketing should not be considered as an expense, but rather should be treated as an investment”
Imagine this: John wants to open a restaurant. He starts this first by finding a good location, a good chef, employing all the right people and renovating his place. Then, he opens the restaurant and his main method of getting customers is through walk-ins. Hopefully, as he pleases his customers with good food and services, he will get more referrals through word-of-mouth and his business will start to grow over time.
Sounds familiar? Most business owners now are like John and are still using old school methods of relying on word- of-mouth to scale their businesses. There is nothing wrong with this because the reason why we used to do business this way is due to the limited options we had when it comes to marketing businesses in the past.
Business without marketing is silly
Now as technology evolved and with a multitude of digital marketing platforms available, there is no need for you to just rely on the old school concept of word-of-mouth.
In the new age of digital marketing, every marketing move you make has specific data to support the outcome. With less than $300, we will be able to judge whether or not a campaign, product or target audience works or not. The key is to gain control of your revenue.
Digital marketing is so powerful now because of the availability of analytics and data. Now, you can keep testing out different kinds of campaigns at a small cost in order to find the right campaign that is worth the investment.
Marketing without a good business is a scam
Always remember: your product or service is the soul of your business. If you do not have a good product or service, your business WILL fail.
Going back to the Italian pizza restaurant example: if I create a great marketing campaign for your Italian restaurant by cooking up a story of you being an Italian chef who provides authentic Italian food with the best service and ambience, I can draw lots of customers to visit and try your food.
However, if your customers find out that your food is not as advertised and your services suck, sooner or later, everyone will know and no matter what kind of marketing you do, you can never gain your customers and reputation back.
Having great marketing campaigns without a good business is just like cheating your way through school and graduating to become a doctor. Sooner or later, you will run out of luck and people will find out that you’re a fraud.
At the end of the day, your business needs to be a business that provides and creates value for your customers. If you do not have a competitive edge or provide value to your customers, no marketing in the world can save you. Your business needs a strong structure and foundation before you even start thinking about marketing.