{"id":18403,"date":"2013-07-01T00:05:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T05:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crowdspring.wpengine.com\/?p=18403"},"modified":"2022-10-13T15:56:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T20:56:37","slug":"marketing-myths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdspring.com\/blog\/marketing-myths\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Business and Startups: 5 Marketing Myths"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Marketing is simple right? For every dollar your company spends on it, you should see over a dollar in the sales generated in return. In other words as long as the ROI is positive any marketing effort can be considered a\u00a0good<\/em> effort and any effort that does not come with measurable, positive ROI should be discontinued as soon as possible. But what about efforts that are difficult or even impossible to to measure? What about marketing tactics that are designed to build\u00a0awareness<\/em><\/a> as opposed to sales? Should these tactics be executed even if the net cash received is less than the tactic costs? In part, it is this tension that supports the concept of the\u00a0marketing mix.<\/em>\u00a0In other words, a solid marketing plan should include a variety of tactics some of which will drive convertible traffic to your store, your website, or your product display, as well as others those that serve simply to spread your company’s name along with the good word about who you are and what you sell.<\/p>\n

Marketing can be especially difficult for small business \u2013\u00a0budgets\u00a0are small, capacity is strained, and customers can often have a difficult time perceiving the differences between your product and your competitor’s. The trick is to experiment to find what works for your business and to try lots of different things until the mix is working for you. So when you read about a famous marketer, and they insist that their way is the\u00a0right<\/em> way, remember to take it with a large grain of salt; what works for another company may not work for you, and vese-versa.<\/p>\n

So many of these\u00a0truths<\/em>\u00a0about small business marketing are spouted every day and many of these ideas, some of which are commonly accepted, are downright dangerous for companies planning their own marketing strategy. Like so much in life, there is no one right way to accomplish something and every business is different and every market unique. I believe that there is only one meaningful rule in marketing: I think of it as\u00a0Define, Measure, Evaluate<\/em>. \u00a0In other words, define specific goals<\/a> for your marketing plans and for each individual marketing tactic; gather data to measure the results; and, finally, evaluate whether the plan or tactic helped to meet the overall goal. If a strategy or tactic is working, keep going. If not kill it, move on, and try something different.<\/p>\n

Here are 5 commonly held truths about marketing and why I believe you should ignore them all:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Some companies don’t need to market themselves.\u00a0<\/strong>One of the most persistent myths around marketing is that it is a luxury that can be done without, especially when times are good. True, marketing budgets can and should be fungible \u2013 sometimes a product might not need as much support as others \u2013 but this does not mean that a company or product will survive long in the market with no support whatsoever. And while you may be flying high right now, that does not give you (or your competitors) permission not to market at all. Every company markets \u2013 whether through direct sales, prominent signage, customer retention, word of mouth, or web and social media presence \u2013 every company engages in marketing and if anyone tries to tell you that they do none at all, just smile and list the 4-Ps<\/a>. I guarantee that they are using at least one of them and marketing in spite of the fact that they claim not to be.<\/p>\n

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