- By Tolu Adebayo
Failure is one of the unpleasant feelings in the world. It makes some people to stop trying while it makes extraordinary people to learn fast. Through my experience in marketing, my wins and learns, l have being able to identify some common pitfalls in marketing, one of them is budget which will be examined right now.
There is a high tendency of making mistakes if you have not mastered the art of success in marketing. Your budget in marketing is an option to buy time and save resources. It is never an hack system which enables you to make sales without boundaries.
There may be no better time to caution you on what to spend money upon and how to budget for marketing. You must have heard me saying, advertisements is the fee you pay for refusing to engage in marketing.
Marketing is marking people against products and services with ease access. All you have to do is to make it available. However, people ignore marketing, only to create something unacceptable and expect the populace to respond without some pun.
First, budget ahead of sales and budge towards asset not access. A good example asset is Facebook page like and a good example of access is Facebook like, Instagram like. If I give you access today, does that makes it easier to access me tomorrow? The answer is in the question.
You may have to pay more to access me. I may prefer someone else before your next schedule. However, you can close the gap between you and audience or clients by having them on your fan page or email list and share value with them daily.
This is a smart way to budgeting for marketing. There is no error in paying for access but have it in mind that your cost is not static or predictable, however sales is possible. With correct marketing strategy, you can share value with them on your page and make them ask for more or ask for help instantly which makes it easier to charge better. When you run an ad begging me to buy from you, one of the things I can use to judge you is price. I know there is a pressure on you to make sales at all cost so I am ready to negotiate or compare you.
However, if we have had contacts with your work severally, we can deduce that you are valuable and that your price is prime for the job especially services-based organisation. Another asset for you is lead. You can run add to collect people’s details which is useful for re-targeting. With re- targeting, you have a high tendency of making sales because of it accuracy. Running ads to collect data or raise awareness is encouraged.
Most of your budget should be directed towards creating asset for your brand like Twitter followers, Instagram Follower and Facebook Page Likes. Same thing goes to LinkedIn and any relevant media.
One of the reasons people failed is by thinking if I target Tolu Adebayo with men’s clothes, he will buy, do I really buy clothes every day or you are preparing for failure? Do not waste marketing budget on products and services that does not demand instant need. The ad will not run forever, better still, run ads that create relationship between you and your customers, when they need you, they will call.
Work with a trained person, you stand the chance to save yourself some mistakes just by asking questions. You can ask for help as much as I do not need to leave my office to your office, I am ready to help bon free. There are some little mistakes people make often that I have volunteered myself to arrest and reduce aggressively.
Tomorrow, we will discuss another reason for marketing failure, if you have any question, go ahead and ask @MegaTolu on Twitter.
If you are meeting me for the first time, please note, the people you are looking for, are also looking for you.
