Are You Investing in Your Marketing Budget?

Even organizations that see marketing as an unnecessary expense engage in promotional strategies. Whether it’s building a website, creating a social media page, or simply putting a sign out front, no business succeeds without getting noticed. Still, this leaves many budding entrepreneurs asking if their marketing budget is an investment or expense. 

Of course, this belies the fact that marketing is essential for success. Whether it qualifies as an expense or an investment depends wholly on whether it’s successful. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to ensure the money you’re spending is going to good use.

Why Marketing Is Essential for Your Business

If you’re walking into this discussion thinking marketing serves no purpose in reaching your business goals, it’s likely because your previous attempts have been unfruitful. We’ll discuss why this may happen later, but for now, it’s merely important to remember that marketing is essential for the success of your business. 

When you consider each of the following reasons for this, this fact becomes obvious. 

• Marketing builds trust: Consumers value brand trust, and marketing can help you build this. 

• Market saturation: There’s a business for everything out there today, and people can get most of what they need online. Marketing helps you stand out from competitors.

• Marketing provides value: When you create informative content, consumers start to value you as an industry leader. People want to know that you are an authority they can trust. 

• Personalized content: One-third of consumers are more likely to make an unplanned purchase when marketing is personalized to them. For this to happen, you need to target potential customers and make marketing a priority!

• Marketing boosts sales: History has shown that effective application of your marketing budget boosts sales. Your goal is to take your marketing from “expense” to “investment” by achieving that effectiveness.

• Marketing builds relationships: Whether you’re at a trade show or replying to Facebook comments, marketing helps you build relationships with potential clients.

Why Your Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

You probably already knew that marketing is an investment. That’s likely what led you to this article in the first place. However you may not understand why your efforts aren’t working. There are a variety of reasons this could occur, but the following are the most common. 

• Confusing messaging: When you’re in an industry for a long time, it’s easy to forget how to effectively communicate with those that don’t share the same level of familiarity. 
• Lack of direction: If your marketing goals only consist of “get more customers,” your plan isn’t focused enough to achieve success. You need to set short and long term goals.
• Lacking experience: Is the person in charge of your marketing an expert? All the good intentions in the world mean little without experience leading your marketing department. 
• You’re trying to do too much: Too many companies fling the metaphorical spaghetti at the wall hoping something will stick. It’s better to focus your efforts. 
• Misaligned sales and marketing: Instead of viewing sales and marketing as two distinct needs, you should view them as complementary. 

If any of these sound familiar, it might be time to bring a marketing expert into the picture. A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) can help in this endeavor, but creating such a position can prove expensive. This isn’t the case, however, when using fractional marketing.

Getting a Better Marketing Return on Investment

Now that you know why your marketing isn’t working, the question remains of how to improve it. The answer is quite simple on the surface: focus on your business needs. You’re probably wondering, isn’t that what I have been doing all along? In reality, the answer to an effective marketing strategy is right there in the word: strategy. 

You can read hundreds of blogs with titles such as “How to Improve Your Marketing,” “10 Tips for Marketing Your Business,” or “Marketing Secrets the Pros Don’t Want You to Know.” However, these blogs are only helpful to a point, as you are merely learning tactics. This is far from the same thing as strategy. And when you bring in a Chief Marketing Officer for fractional marketing, it’s the latter that you’ll secure. 

CMOs are the top authorities of marketing leadership, and they make your existing marketing team stronger. They know how to operate on a budget and make the most of the funds they’re allocated. They excel in fractional marketing because they’re providing the promotional tools that will work for your business – and nothing more. You’re not paying for work and peripheral costs — you’re investing in a vision. 

And while investing in fractional marketing does come at a price, it will end up saving your company money instead of throwing dollars away on tactics that don’t work.

Is Marketing an Expense or Investment? That’s up to You

If you don’t believe the money you’re investing in marketing is helping, it’s not because marketing strategies don’t work. This is merely an indicator that what you’re doing now isn’t working. This often occurs because people focus more on tactics rather than strategies. Tactics serve as a one-size-fits-all solution, so you shouldn’t be surprised when they don’t actually fit. 

Fractional CMOs are marketing leaders who can turn your organization around and increase profitability by making the most of your marketing budget. If you’re ready to move past marketing as an expense rather than an investment, contact us today at yorCMO. You can get all the benefits of having a Chief Marketing Officer without any of the additional indirect costs.