marketing fear Archives - Page 6 of 7 by Mark Murnahan

You Know it is Bad For Business, So Stop It!

In business, there are a lot of bad habits that can stunt your growth. You do not have to look for a pitfall, because they are looking for you. There are many distractions to get in the way of doing the marketing you should be doing, and doing better. So, what is holding you back? Is fear and insecurity holding your marketing back? Are bad habits holding your marketing back? Are you missing profit by putting off better marketing until tomorrow? Are you guilty of knowing that something is bad for you, or just not good for you, but you keep doing it anyway? If you look carefully, you may just find that you are not so different from everybody else. Most people find it hard to push the marketing go button, but I found some other obstacles you may not have considered.

I recently visited with a treasured friend, Mike Burgess of Spinnaker Web Design, and we discussed people, their habits, their psychology, and how most of them are not well-suited for business. They may be good at what they do, but business decisions, and particularly marketing decisions, are not most peoples’ strong point.

Mike has been my close friend for a long time. We have great conversations, because we each provide our unique view of industry issues. In addition to being a web developer, Mike is also a Kansas State Legislator. The people who do that job on a state level work hard and are not in it for the money. They have to put up with a lot of rhetoric from constituents. This makes Mike a good balance for me as a friend. I take no crap at all, and he takes crap and turns it into a breakfast omelet. I will share a couple of things we discovered.

It is Bad for You, But You Keep Doing It

I told Mike that I was confused about people. I told him that although I am seeking one new marketing client, that I am getting all kinds of crazy callers wanting to grow huge profit for their business, but they have it all wrong. They think they can achieve massive success without any sacrifice. It is as if they hope for the equivalent of buying a McDonald’s restaurant for a single month’s worth of McDonald’s restaurant revenues. I mean, if you want to generate a million dollars of revenue, you don’t do it with a few thousand dollars. Bill Gates, John Davidson Rockefeller, and Warren Buffet cannot do it, so why do other people think they can? I remind them that there is no pink pony ride to success, and that there are certain laws of Internet marketing that can never be broken.

Mike had some interesting observations.

People Do What is Comfortable

Mike pointed out that most people will do what is comfortable, even when they know better. They understand that the extra cheeseburger and fries is not good for their diet, but they keep doing it. He pointed out that although I have heard about the risks of smoking, I still smoke. He pointed out that people have done business the same way for a long time, and breaking those old habits is really hard for them. They cannot see or touch the idea of doing more business online. It is intangible to them, just like lung cancer to a smoker or a cheeseburger is to an obese person with heart disease. They know that what they are doing is bad for them, but they keep doing it because it is comfortable, and because change is not comfortable.

Go and visit a grade school lunchroom sometime and see how many kids are eating their vegetables. I have three kids and I love the school lunchroom. I call it my favorite restaurant. People learn things young. Being around kids reminds me of this, and how important it is to break bad habits as quickly as possible. If you are doing the equivalent of “smoking cigarettes” and “eating cheeseburgers”, it is time to ask yourself why you continue to do what you know is unhealthy for your business. I will tell you the way Bob Newhart said in his popular comedy skit, “stop it!“ Just Stop It!

People Do Not Pay Attention

As I talked with Mike, we reminisced about stupid things we have witnessed on the Internet over the years. I was reminded of a particular sample of my company’s website design and search engine optimization services. The sample website was so appealing that we started having a flood of calls for the product. It was a designer bedding site, and people were calling to purchase designer bedding. We are an Internet services company … we don’t sell designer bedding! The number they were calling was only displayed at the very top of each page, or when a user would try to place an order. It was placed conspicuously in a notice stating clearly that the site was only a sample of our website design, search engine optimization, and ecommerce services, and that we do not sell bedding. It was in bright red and bold letters. We could not have made it any more clear, but people kept calling about that bedding for many years to come.

The point in this is that while marketing a product or service, you have to do the thinking for them. It is funny, but we also get a whole lot of similar calls for Ethicon surgical sutures and car dealerships.

Most People Don’t Know Their Shortcomings

Knowing your shortcomings is a good start to being more productive in business, but it is only a start. I know mine, and I am doing something about it. I will share it with you, but I want you to consider yours at the same time.

I stink at sales. Actually, I take that back. I am amazing at giving factual data of how I will increase a company’s profits, and I am even good at expressing the emotional benefits of what I do. I am so good at it that I should never, ever, in my lifetime, be allowed into a boardroom. I am that guy who will give it to them straight and without any apology. I say it how it is. I do not hold back. If I see incompetence, I am not shy to express it. People do not always like the truth. They like a soft-handed salesy approach that pats them on the bum and makes them feel all cozy and warm, like a baby in mother’s arms. That is not a service I provide. As I have often said, “I am not your mother!” When people don’t “get it” I am not a guy who will keep working on a sale. It is because I am pretty (ok, obsessively) selective about the clients I will work with. I mean, they are getting the big dollars out of the deal, so when they don’t “get it” I know that we are not a good match. OK, I said I am not a salesman … so get off my back about it! It is my shortcoming, and so I always seek sales reps who can explain what I do without wanting to choke somebody. There is not enough Valium to prevent a choking when somebody has a glazed over look after I give a presentation. I am making them money. They just have to pay me for it first, because it is far too easy for them to try and steal from me (like the story about Suture Express).

If you find that your shortcoming is in your marketing and you understand that exposure to thousands more targeted visitors to your website and better marketing talent will help, then ring me up. If you are looking for a pink pony ride to success or some fine designer bedding, then you were not paying attention. In that case, Call Mike!

Marketing Cost vs. Marketing Value

If you make your price the first priority in a cost to value comparison, you may want to reconsider. Cost is a fast way to get a lot of public attention, but it can also provide a negative net return. Showing a low cost has a solid place in some markets, but consider evaluating the cost and value propositions you present to your market. If you are building upon only an audience of “glancing prospects”, you may miss your best customers in the process. What I call glancing prospects are the ones who are out for cost, and that is the primary factor in their decision making. They glance in your direction and give little consideration to anything but how much it will cost. You may like these customers if you are content to offer the lowest cost, but they are also often not return customers or loyal to your brand. It is not just because you didn’t provide value, but because value is not what they were seeking. Thus, they never realized your value.

There are different kinds of buyers in any market, and there are still many who consider value over price. Even while shopping for identical products, many people will consider the value of buying it from somebody they trust or find other benefits from. It takes more effort to find value-shoppers than to find price-shoppers, but they are worth every bit of it. They will be back, and they will tell their friends.

I will use my industry as an example, but it is important to consider this in any industry. I sell marketing. In my case, value is all that really matters. Return on investment (ROI) is what makes sense to my clients. What they spend is not what matters but rather what they will receive for their money … which is more money. Profit is what my clients want, and they will do what it takes to get it. At the same time, I also attract a lot of “glancing prospects” and “lookers” without any intention of seeking value. Do you want to guess which one I consider important? That’s right … I want the ones who want the ROI and look closer to understand the value of my services.

Cheap Marketing and Low Value

Business people are cost-conscious, and more now than ever. Ironically, this often leads them to mistakes that sabotage their business efforts. As a reaction to their fears, companies will often drop their prices and subsequently drop their value. Marketing is the easiest cost to cut, but also the fastest way to reduce profit and go out of business. I watch companies all the time that neglect the value of their marketing, and try to use a cost proposition in place of a value proposition. It is a short-term cashflow bandage that becomes their undoing.

You can call me crazy, but I am smart enough to get dressed before going to the grocery store. In fact, I can be pretty downright bright, on a good day. I guess I am not smart enough to see the “wisdom” in some people’s reasoning of comparing cost above value. Some will try to weigh the cost with value, but often use completely flawed metrics for comparison. I see people all the time who do not understand how dangerous bargain hunting can be when it comes to their marketing, or with other purchases.

How Valuable is Marketing?

Marketing is what makes companies money. Marketing is how customers find companies and companies find customers. Marketing, in some manner or another, is the only way a company will earn a profit. Marketing should not have a net cost, but rather a profit gain. Marketing should be viewed as an investment, and not an expense. Seeking the lowest cost for something so value-driven seems like the absolute absence of logic. Looking for value, on the other hand, is brilliant.

Do People Really Seek Cheap Marketing?

Yes, a lot of people ask questions about the cost of marketing and rates for marketing-related services. At least that is what my website visitor logs show me. Perhaps you see the same in your industry. I am including a list of cost-related things people searched for and found my blog. Some of them are pretty amusing. People even found my blog searching to find how much it costs to join Facebook.

One of the first things a person in my field often hears is “how much will it cost?” I weed these out fast, because when cost is the question and value is secondary, usually the person asking fits into one of two categories as follows:

They do not have enough money to afford quality marketing. If they do not have the money to do things right, they will never be pleased … ever. It is the same kind of client who tries to tell the consultant what to do rather than accept the consultation they pay to receive.
They ask about cost because it is the question they know best. They assume that a lower investment comes with a lower risk, but this is really not the case. This assumption places the value equation completely backward. Without value, the cost of marketing does not matter. It is not worth it at any cost, and can often have disastrous results.

Similarly, in your line of work, you will likely find that if your prospective customers recognize the value of what you offer, they will often find a way to deal with the cost.

Marketing Value and Cost Consideration: Do You Buy Price Tags?

I have never bought a price tag, but I have purchased a lot of things with price tags on them. Sure, some people buy price tags … literal price tags. What I mean is whether you look at an item and decide that you want it and then look at the price tag, or do you look at the price tag to decide whether you want it. Think about your customers and how they may address this same question. Value-seeking customers will decide whether they want or need something, acknowledge that they want or need it, and then look at the price tag. Cost-seeking customers will look at the price tag and if the price is “right” decide whether it was something they were even interested in buying. They love to look, but they hate to part with money more than they enjoy what they receive in return. NOTE: For this customer, the “right” price is highly subjective to poor interpretation.

Cost, Rates, and Value: Lookers Are Everywhere!

Glancing prospects are very easy to lure. I can drag them in by the truckload. Just have a look at these recent searches people performed to land here at my blog, and then consider how many of these I will likely do business with. Don’t get me wrong, because I like when people ask about cost. It is a buying sign and tells me they are in the market. The fact remains that when somebody asks me about cost before understanding value, I normally tell them kindly that they are simply not ready for what I offer. What I offer is profit!

There are enough people asking about cost, but it is funny to find that a comparatively few people ask questions of value. Those are the people I want, and I hope you can see the value in this, too!

Note that my list of “What Cheap People Search For” is based on actual terms people typed into a search engine and clicked on my blog. I couldn’t make this up if I tried. You may not be as amused as I am, but somebody actually wanted to know “how much does a sheep cost” … really, a sheep. Darn, I don’t sell sheep. You can bet that if I did sell sheep, they wouldn’t be cheap sheep.

Marketing as Usual: More Money and Less Exposure

I work with marketing numbers every day in my business, but sometimes I like to break it down to an individual level and gather more specific opinions. I can’t be brilliant every day so some days I rely on my dear Mother. I did that today, and I asked her about marketing. Ironic, isn’t it?

Since my mother remembers the days before television, and when telephone lines were shared across multiple households, I figured she could provide a good representation of “old school” thinking about marketing. I asked her a very specific question as follows: “If you were going to market a business, where would you focus your efforts?” She did not even ask me what kind of business before she replied “On the Internet.” I asked her, “Why do you think that some businesses still don’t think that way?” She said “I think they do, don’t they?” I told her that overall market spending spend says yes, but that I still find some companies marketing as “usual” … as if it is 2007. I wanted her opinion of why this could be the case. She said something that I have thought many times, and her reply was “It is foreign to them, and they probably just don’t understand how it can work for them.”

Thanks Mom!

The Monsters Disappear When You Turn on the Lights

Now do you agree with my Baby Boomer age mother? Nod yes. Most people agree that the Internet is the way to go for marketing. It is the most measurable venue for marketing of all, but I sometimes wonder if people realize that fact. The Internet provides enough data that marketing efforts can be accounted for down to every “click” and every dollar. You simply must look at enough data to create statistical significance. Anybody who does not grasp the value of measurements in marketing probably just does not understand it, and may be just a little bit scared. It seems that Internet marketing comes with a fear that many people have a hard time overcoming. The fear can be proven irrational using facts, but some people are just too stubborn to pay attention long enough to learn. They hear it, and they think it, but until they take the time to know the facts, they don’t fully believe it. I think of it like a kid with a bad dream when you turn on the lights, all the monsters disappear.

Many people want to achieve huge success before they actually make a reasonable and well calculated effort toward online marketing. They can read case studies of how others have done it, even in their industry, but as soon as the lights go out, they see monsters again.

Marketing Like a Goldfish in a Shark Tank

Fear and disbelief are big reasons that most companies using the Internet for marketing are doing it terribly unsuccessfully. They want to dip their toe in the water and test it out with a goldfish sized budget. What nobody tells them is that there are sharks in that water. If you don’t swim like a shark, you are likely to be “bitten” and fail miserably. The sad result for many business people is that once they are bitten, they will blame the water or the sharks, but they seldom ever blame the real culprit … themselves!

The alternative to having a shark budget is to shrink the tank using a more focused and creative marketing approach. It requires significant marketing talent to create success, even with a shark budget, but talent is even more important with a goldfish budget. In every case, it still requires more than a toe in the water to avoid the shark bite of an unsuccessful marketing attempt.

If you want your marketing to be successful, you can be one of the sharks or you can shrink the tank with focused marketing enough to take away the sharks’ advantage. Either way, you will have to address the sharks!

Bolstering the fears associated with Internet marketing is the fact that most Internet marketers (SEO, SEM, SMM, Guru, Expert, Maven, Evangelist, et. Al.) really stink at their job. It should also be noted that even the good ones will suffer if they have a client who bucks them at every turn, already knows it all, or asks them to jump through flaming hoops with a goldfish budget in a shark tank. Of course, successful marketers will usually not put themselves in this position. We understand the numbers, and we know that the chance of failure due to under-marketing is statistically significant.

We have surely all seen the overwhelming data, or at least heard a huge frenzy about newspapers, television, radio, and telephone book advertising sales each dropping like lead balloons. There is a reason for this, and the reason is that the Internet is far more effective. Still, I find it shocking to witness companies that have not shifted their efforts and their budget where it can make an impact.

I went on talking with my mother and we discussed business marketing budgets. I was curious why a company spending “x” dollars on ineffective marketing will often try to take a small fraction of that same amount of money to market on the Internet. I asked whether, as they shift their efforts, if it made sense for them to plan to spend less money and effort in the place it could really work. I asked her “If you were going to budget efforts between television, newspapers, phone books, and Internet, which one would get the biggest portion?” Without regard for industry, she said “the Internet, because you can reach anybody there”, and she was right. Of course, she did not have the fear that I was going to sell her something. She could be honest with me about what most people already know, but are afraid to address.

Marketing Without a Budget: Guerrilla Marketing Tips

Juan Martin Diez: 18th Century Guerrilla

If you struggle to produce the money needed for marketing, you had better learn some guerrilla marketing, and fast! You should always assume that somebody else in your market segment has deeper pockets and the longer you wait the harder it will be to reach the customers. When marketing a business with a small marketing budget or no marketing budget at all, you can still improve your chances of success using free or very low cost guerrilla marketing.

How to Grow a Business Without a Marketing Budget

I do not want to let you down, but the truth is that it absolutely cannot be done. You will have to budget something, and if it is not money, it will be time … probably a lot of time. Be ready for that, and budget your marketing time. Set aside a scheduled time to learn more, do more, and earn more. This is your business we are talking about and if you have a family to feed, like I do, it really starts to seem worth it to make it a success. Budget your time well, because although you may think you are too busy to budget time for marketing, the truth may be that you are just busy with the wrong things. If you are marketing your business well, time in other areas will almost surely free up for you. While you are budgeting time, be sure to budget enough to finish reading this article. I have some guerrilla marketing tips for you.

Useful Guerrilla Marketing Tips

I am going to give you some free and effective guerrilla marketing tips that you can start using today. I will also welcome your thoughts and additions, but if I try to add more than a short list, I will be writing this all day. This is only intended to help prime you for the task of marketing your business.

Guerrilla Marketing Tip Number One: Get Uncomfortable

If you are sitting back in your easy chair feeling comfortable about your marketing, you are not ready for this. If you are marketing without a budget, and you are comfortable about your marketing, you are really not ready for this.

One of the first things I would suggest for anybody trying to grow a business is to get uncomfortable. The more uncomfortable you are, the more likely you are to take serious measures to do something about it. If you relax and think things are just fine, you are just asking for that comfortability to all slip away. I have been in business for over 20 years and I have seen the good times and the bad times. I remember joking with my wife while living in my ivory tower and having a whole lot more time and money than I ever thought I could want or need and saying “I’m tired of living like this.” I actually joked but also kind of meant it, because while earning more per year than an average family does in ten years can be fun and all, a fall can also happen a lot faster. I have seen it … the hard way. Never get too comfortable, and always find reasons that you are “tired of living like this.”

Guerrilla Marketing Tip Number Two: Find Success and Follow It

Find success and follow it! Look for what successful people have done and learn from their experiences. I am not saying to imitate their every move, but rather to learn what they know and find ways that it can be applied to your marketing efforts. Many successful people will blog about their experiences and are happy to share what is in their head. Read blogs until your eyes hurt! Although it may seem like a waste of time at first, look at it this way; if you want to know how to do something better, doesn’t it make sense to use what others have learned instead of trying to learn it all the hard way?

Do not believe everything you read, but choose carefully and read a lot. Pay attention! Pick out a handful of blogs and spend some time to do more than just scan and click. Your competition is scanning and clicking through a lot of information. You want to learn and improve your business profitability, so what you should know is that even a little of the right information is better than a lot of average information. Get involved and find information pertinent to your industry. Find information from marketers who know marketing. Find things that challenge convention, because conventional is what everybody else is doing. Here are some blogs to help you get started, and of course I should mention that I have a blog archive with many nice trinkets to share.

Don’t just sit there! Learn opinions from other readers and add your comments. Note that while you are commenting that there is a place to enter your web address URL and it will create a link back to your website. If you are active in blogs, those links can add up to a lot. It is also a great way to become familiar with other frequent readers or people who had a common interest. Reach out to them and find out what works for them. Also be sure to read “10 Really Good Reasons to Blog” … seriously, add it to your time budget and read it!

Guerrilla Marketing Tip Number Three: Look Where Your Market is Looking

Look where your market is looking. I want to be really clear on this when I say that your customers are using the Internet. I was recently visiting with an old client of mine who is in the railroad construction business. They came to me about a website several years back, because they knew that they were supposed to have a website. They did not really know why, and their biggest focused use of it was to find job applicants. Even today, they still find it hard to comprehend that the people out there who make decisions about who will build their railroad bridge or railroad extension are using the Internet. Think of it this way, if you were running this company, even if they are not using the Internet to search for where to buy a railroad bridge, you should be there to increase their awareness of you. The company spends virtually zero money or effort in marketing, yet they want more business. This is what happens when you stop saying “I’m tired of living like this.” The moral of the story: Don’t get railroaded by thinking that your customers don’t use the Internet. Unless your potential customers live in caves without computers and no cellular signal, they are using the Internet every day. Just because you do not sell the product online or receive immediate gratification does not mean you can slide by without it. Selling more of what you offer does not always mean you are pitching them your next deal. There is a reason that Mc Donalds runs ads that say “You deserve a break today” and not just “$.99 Big Macs for a limited time at participating locations.” Branding is important, and the company the potential purchaser has heard of will have the upper hand.

Guerrilla Marketing Tip Number Four: Guerrilla Marketing is a Stepping Stone

You should be aware of some basic assumptions about companies that try to perform marketing without a budget. You need to know this before you can overcome it. If your marketing budget is small, we can make a couple of accurate assumptions. Whether these assumptions are right or wrong, it is very likely how your prospective customers and your competition will perceive your business, so be aware of this. Here is the first assumption about marketing without a budget: If you do not have a marketing budget, it is pretty likely that you are broke. Successful companies that can afford marketing do not flinch at the idea of investing in growing their market share to squeeze you out of the picture. This brings me to the second assumption about marketing without a budget: Wouldn’t you, if you were them?

You could just try the old line that you don’t spend money on marketing because you are trying to keep your cost low. Sorry, anybody who has ever been in business will see right through that one. Let’s face it, your cost is lower when your company is productive and making money. Marketing does not create a net loss … it creates profit, money, business, customers, growth, market share … you know, all of those things you want more of. Marketing lowers your cost by making your business successful.

Guerrilla marketing is a good way to get started, but businesses that do not reinvest in professional marketing services will often fall into a wasteful trap that they are not able to get out of. Once you have seen the benefits of good guerrilla marketing, use it for professional marketing. You probably answered affirmatively when I asked “Wouldn’t you, if you were them?” Stop imagining that you are above this one very basic law of successful business: It takes money to make money. Remember that without experienced marketing talent, it will be much harder to get your hands on money. It is like a chicken and egg question, only worse: What came first, the money or the money? The more you invest, whether time or money, the more you will receive in return. If you use guerrilla marketing as a stepping stone to grow beyond your current constraints, you will then understand why you did all that reading i assigned you.

I will have some more tips for you soon, so budget your time and keep coming back.

The answer to this question is not always yes. Here is an even better question for you to consider. Will presenting an appealing message to thousands more of the right people who are interested in your products or services be beneficial to your business? Maybe your answer is “no”, but I really doubt that.

There are a lot of questions to be answered about reaching a targeted audience that is important to your business. There is a lot of fear of failure and loss. Sometimes I think the people who doubt potential for increasing business using the Internet the most are often convinced that it only happens for the lucky ones. I have good news for you. You have the luck of the Irish on your side today, and they don’t call me “Murnahan” for being French.

Tough Marketing Questions for Many People

Marketing is a scary thing to a lot of people. I mean, it all seems so speculative, right? Maybe you think it seems like a bunch of guesswork, and some people just get lucky.

Marketing is not so speculative at all. This is not like rolling dice on a craps table and gambling with your company’s money, except for the newcomers to the marketing industry who are trying to earn as they learn. There is a lot of math and science at work. Doing it right sometimes just means making proper calculations. On the other hand, the message you deliver requires marketing creativity, but even creativity is not as speculative as you may imagine. There really are a lot of safeguards in proper marketing, and it does not need to be risky.

The truth is that there are a lot of people who just don’t hit the mark. They don’t get the marketing right the first time, and that opens a floodgate of fears and apprehension. It begs some tough marketing questions for many people. Some of the hardest questions running through people’s minds are as follows:

“Is it really likely that I can reach thousands more people interested in what I offer”
“How much will it really help my business?”
“How much it will cost?”

These are troubling questions that hold a lot of people back from the much more important considerations of what happens if you do nothing, or keep doing the things that do not work. I will offer you some answers to each of these. Please pay attention.

Now Seriously, Would Exposure to Thousands More People Help Your Business?

When you hear something like this it is really easy to assume that it is just hype, or that it will not be worth the expense, right? Often, it truly is just hype, but it is true that there really are thousands of potential customers out there. If you have the right message, at the right time, and deliver it properly, those can be your customers. This is not a myth, and it is not a unicorn hunting expedition. It takes some well crafted effort to achieve, but it really is not all that hard to gain huge amounts of new business with proper Internet marketing.

Is it really likely that I can reach thousands more people interested in what I offer?

Are there really thousands more people out there on the Internet who are interested in what you have to offer? Yes, people have actually even been successful selling dog poop online! Is it likely to reach the right audience with a proper marketing plan? Yes, but a weak plan with little effort will just disappoint you, again.

You can rest assured that there are not very many of the tens of thousands of readers that come to my blog each month who are seeking tips for knitting pajamas. They come because they want ideas, and they want to know what I know about SEO, social media, and other Internet marketing topics. Now what percentage of Internet users do you think are really interested in marketing? Seriously, this isn’t the most fun you ever had. Most people try to ignore marketing until the competition destroys their business. Don’t you think some people will be interested in what you have to offer, too?

How much will it really help my business?

Here is one of those easy questions to answer with math. You know how much each customer is worth to your business, right? You know how much you spend to acquire each customer, right? With this information and other vital data, it is pretty easy to calculate the actual gain to your business. If you do not have solid numbers, you really need marketing help more than you realize.

I understand that you hear all of the talk about the Internet being like the big California Gold Rush of 1848. You are surely hit by hundreds of Internet marketers trying to sell you SEO snake oil or proposing that you will make millions of dollars using nothing but Twitter or Facebook. Yes, most of these offers are crap, and easy to see through.

Now let’s stop being silly and answer this serious question. If it is true that you can realistically reach a targeted audience of thousands more people with an interest in what you offer, wouldn’t it be absolutely absurd to ignore it? Here is the answer: Yes, it would be absolutely absurd, and the scary cost is that your competitor will probably reach the people you missed. Question answered? Yes, I think so.

How much will it cost?

If you see marketing as a net loss, you are really not getting the point of it at all. Perhaps you have just tried all the wrong things and you are tired of trying.

If you think of Internet marketing as an investment in your business, you are on the right track. Like an investment, you must consider how much you want to gain. The consideration of a well thought out and effective marketing plan should be more along the lines of how much money you can get your hands on to do the one thing that will grow your business more than anything else. When people ask me the question of cost before any considerations of the objectives and directives involved, I tell them “You had better bring your lunch money.” This is for two reasons. First, because the more you put into marketing, the more you get out of it. Second, because I have a whole lot to teach this person about how marketing really works.

I have written many articles on the topic of Internet marketing and development cost. Here are a couple of them that you may find interesting:

One More Question!

Oh yes, I already asked you this one, but now it is time for your answer. Will presenting an appealing message to thousands more of the right people who are interested in your products or services be beneficial to your business? I ask this, because it is what makes my telephones ring. It is what I do for my clients. This is not a rhetorical question. Find me here if you want more answers.