marketing cost Archives - Page 2 of 4 by Mark Murnahan

Hourly Rate for Setting Up Social Media Profiles?!

My blog is often inspired by things that happen in my real life. It is easier to tell something from experience than to make things up. Sometimes those things which happen in real life make me want to scream! I am going to share a good example.

I received a call from a friend yesterday. My friend was seeking some advice about social media, so I was delighted to provide my assistance. The question created one of those moments when I want to scream, pull my hair out, and choke people. My friend wanted to know how to set an hourly price to set up social media profiles for companies.

The question was important to her, because an advertising agency she works with had come to her asking for an hourly rate to help set up client’s accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and etcetera. She was caught off guard by their request, and so she asked me for an opinion of what it is worth.

My friend is a relatively popular blogger, and avid user of social media, but she is not really in the business of social media marketing. Strangely enough, they thought she could help. Since she does not want to turn away business, I feel for her dilemma. In this case, I suggested that providing a service that creates a zero net gain, or even a loss to the client is a good reason to either further educate the client, if they are open to learning, or to walk away from the offer.

I suggested that an hourly rate for setting up social media profiles, as with any other marketing or public relations service, should have a basis in the value to the client. In this case, the value would be minuscule, if not negative, and I explained some reasons this is the case. Of course, it began with the logic that any company who needs somebody just to set up their profiles is not likely to use those profiles for any significant benefit.

Creating social media profiles has extremely low value without a strategy, and without the manpower and mindpower to use them well. If they had that manpower, and more importantly, the mindpower, they wouldn’t need my friend at all. It all got me to thinking that it is like a dog chasing a train. What will the dog do if he catches it? The dog doesn’t know, and so the dog will not get much benefit from the chase.

I want to tell you a couple reasons this is a formula for failure.

Social Media Profiles Do Not Provide Value!

I understand that this may not make perfect sense to everybody, but I am going to try to make this easy. Sure, there are a lot of people who do not know how to get their name on Facebook, or how to create a Twitter username. My mother would not have a Facebook account if I had not set it up for her. My mother is not running a business and trying to promote her name, either.

Think for a moment … If my mother was in business, would it make sense to have somebody set up her account just so she could say “I’m on Facebook and Twitter”? What good is that? Is it so that people who already know who she is could magically flood her with new business? Why would they do that? Let me tell you the truth about this … They won’t!

The value of social media comes when you actually give people a reason to chose your company over the squillion other options out there in the marketplace. If you don’t have a clear reason for people to choose you over a competitor, or to recommend you to their friends because your company is awesome, what is the point? Is it the visibility that is so enticing? I want to assure you that there are millions of visible people who are failing in business. Having a social media profile is not going to make you more successful, and is very unlikely, in itself, to make you more visible.

A lot of people obviously do not yet understand that social media profiles are not going to spew crude oil or reveal a hidden gold mine. Perhaps everybody around you says “You have to be on Facebook” or “There are people making tons of money on Twitter.” The thing they don’t tell you, and probably do not realize, is that social media is not like a Hollywood “Field of Dreams” method for easy success.

This mentality is something I really try hard to understand, and I even try to be compassionate and patient about. The challenge is that when I explain it to people with solid proof, but they still have to learn things the hard way, I end up feeling bad for not having the strength to help them. That is crazy, right? I should not feel guilty for other people’s unwillingness to believe the truth, but I still do.

What About the SEO Value of Social Media Profiles

A lot of people seem to be convinced that there will be a big SEO (search engine optimization) benefit by having a lot of social media profiles. Social media can have an amazing impact on search engine rankings, but it is not why some people think, or hope, or would ask you to believe. The benefit comes when social media is used well, and more of the right people learn about your offerings and share it across their networks and link to your website from other places, such as their blogs and websites.

I understand how the false notion can seem almost logical, because each of those social media profiles will have a link to their website, and more links are a good thing.

There really is a lot of SEO value in social media, but it takes more than just setting up unused profiles. Otherwise we would all be in a race to have the most social media accounts. Some people are, but not the wise ones … not the informed ones. If you ever actually thought that the SEO comes from unused and unknown profiles, think again! Of course, most of the people seeking to pay for such a service would never take the time to read and learn about this, but for your amusement, I offer you some articles on the matter as follows:

100 Social Media Profiles or 1,000 … How Much Do You Want to Waste?

There is a constant pipeline filled with desperate companies hoping and begging for a quick and easy fix to increasing their business’ profit. However, with each company that sets up their social media profiles and endures the failure of short-sighted thinking, comes dozens of their friends and colleagues who will learn from their failure. This means that the pipeline will eventually slow down, and people will have to start thinking before they earn.

When Marketers Sell Negative Value, They Destroy Their Own Market

There is a rule in marketing that a lot of people try to overlook, but it is to their eventual regret. Regardless of the client’s request, it is the duty of a marketing professional to be sure that the client receives more value from the relationship than its cost. This goes for advertising agencies, independent marketing consultants, and in-house marketing departments.

The rule works like this: If the client / company receives less value, in the way of increased business, than the cost of the marketing efforts, it is not sustainable! Trying to work around this rule is like rubbing a lamp and hoping that a money genie will somehow magically come and make up for the screwups.

I realize that the conventional thinking is to give the client what they ask for, and to take their money. I see that as a huge mistake, and proof of a marketer who does not adhere to the same standards they expect of their clients. Good marketing consultants help clients to maintain their marketability and to avoid taking hazardous shortcuts. If the consultant just takes the money and gives a client what they ask for without questioning it, they are not doing their job.

As long as people are set on believing the myths of social media rather than the truth, they may as well say a toast to their own failure.

My Answer to This Question

My answer, if somebody asked me how much it would cost to set up their social media profiles would be something like this:

It will cost a bare minimum of $5,000 per month, and quite easily over $25,000. It will come with a whole lot of market research, strategy, implementation, and a well-forecasted return on investment. That means it will pay you a lot more than you pay me, but that is only if I believe in your company enough to hang my reputation on it. That does not happen with companies who are resigned to believing that simply “being on social media” will increase their profit. Thank you, but no thank you.

If you run your business by placing cost above value, you are making a big mistake. Instead of pouting about how much a successful marketing campaign will cost, it is better to focus on how much it pays. Then the more important factor is how to get your hands on the money it will take to achieve the results you are after.

Related Articles:
Yes, I put these here for you to read. I think they can help to emphasize why simply setting up social media profiles without a good strategy is a waste of time and money. You already have an idea whether you can afford me or not, so don’t worry … I am not selling you anything, and my prices will not go down just because you read more of my blog. Enjoy!

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Business Tip: People Think Better When They Are Paid Well

Think about your worst times in your career. You were probably stressed by a lot of little things that seemed bigger than they really were, and perhaps some really big challenges, too. Deadlines, coworkers, health, family, finances, and other stressful issues can make it feel like everything is spiraling out of control. Some challenges can be used to build a company stronger, but it is far more common that they become destructive.

I am going to give you a bit of information that you can email to your boss with confidence, tweet on Twitter, “Like” on Facebook, and best of all … you can blame me for being the one who gave your boss this uncommon piece of common sense.

Is there a solution? I have found through more than two decades in business for myself, and from consulting with many businesses, the majority of business challenges can be improved with more money. That could mean hiring a better accountant, bringing in a strategist, improved inventory and purchasing capability, or having the right equipment to do the job at hand. The list of enhancements is long, but let’s just say that money can bring about a lot of improvements in a company.

One of the greatest improvements to a business comes from the quality of life of the people who make the business what it is. You cannot separate the people from the business, and if you try, you will fail!

Think of it like this for a moment: About half of all marriages in America end in a divorce. The two biggest causes that people claim are infidelity and finances. I suspect that much of that infidelity is because they don’t have enough money to have sex with their spouse! Come on, really, how sexy is an unproductive or frustrated spouse, after all?

Yes, sex and money break people down and make them less productive, even in their marriages. So how could it even be possible that this does not affect their business life, too? It is not possible, because businesses are made up of their people. Fragile or strong, focused or fragmented, those people are what make a company whatever it becomes. This is why, as a consultant, I have always suggested investing wisely in the people, and I have recommended as many pay raises as job terminations.

Money Can Help Most Business Challenges

Money does not fix everything, but in a business, it can facilitate a lot of things which are not otherwise possible. If more money can help a business, and I think this is very true for most if not all companies, then how do you make that happen? It generally requires doing more of the business that pays the company profits. That means marketing, and marketing well!

I have been in business long enough to know just about every conceivable cause of stress. Fortunately, I have been in business long enough to heal from a good number of those stresses, too. I am not spying on you and looking over your shoulder, but I really do know more about your challenges than you may give me credit. That is because I have been there, and I have consulted a squillion companies with troubles just like yours.

Most of the people around you have encountered some sort of stress in their business lives, too. If they say they have not, they are either lying, or their brain just blocked it out in order to preserve their sanity. The biggest challenge that most people in business shudder to discuss is money. In most business owners’ minds, a lack of money means they did not do their job as well as the next person. It gives them a feeling of shame. The truth is that it often just means they did not market their business as well.

If you don’t believe me about the importance of marketing, just consider all of those things like a Snuggie or a Slap Chop which had phenomenal success, against all odds. Without marketing, they would still be “stupid” ideas in some inventors mind. Instead, they were stupid ideas that turned into millions of dollars in somebody’s bank account.

If you are really not sure what these items are, check out this video about the Snuggie. It has received over 16 million views on YouTube, and it is just a parody of an actual Snuggie commercial.

Are you still not convinced about marketing? Consider the Slap Chop. This thing made millions of dollars! Are you kidding me? It is a cheap hunk of plastic with a spokesman who was arrested for beating up a hooker.

It is easy to criticize these and say they are not good marketing, but they achieved their goals. I prefer something less sleazy for my clients, but the important message here is that marketing makes the difference between success and failure in nearly any company of any size.

I realize that it is a tough cycle to break, because in order to do more business, it usually requires an investment. It may take a big and scary investment, but it should not be any more scary than being in business, itself. With the right mindset, and the right facts, it should be like a huge beam of sunshine breaking through the clouds.

Why Marketing Feels Expensive

There is a common perception that marketing is expensive, rather than the reality that not marketing is where the really huge cost comes from. Keeping the doors open on a business without reaching the right customers with the right message they will respond to … now that is expensive!

I see it all the time where a company will send out a flurry of requests for proposals from companies like mine. Companies who think like a Fortune 500 company will focus on the value proposition, and what the cost represents. Smaller or less secure companies will often try to focus on the price, instead of hiring it out to the right people with the right plan. This is why my engagement letter will often include something similar to the statement as follows:

Creative marketing based on solid research is what makes the difference between Pepsi Cola and the one you never heard of. This is the area where the majority of efforts should be focused.

The most effective marketing strategies involve more than price comparisons between a handful of off the cuff proposals, and we know this to be true. This is why I am confident in saying that the best marketing decisions you will make do not center on ill-considered boilerplate proposals designed to wow you.

Instead, those decisions should be based on solid data and confidence that your marketing dollars are spent with somebody who can effectively build your brand and build your profits. That means a lot more than the person with a fast pitch and a price sheet in hand. This engagement is not based on hours worked, but rather on experience and know-how. It will include my focused attention on building your brand and producing long-term equity in your market.

Breaking a Cycle of Destruction

If you want to learn how to break a cycle of destruction in your business and have more money, you must address your marketing. It is what builds your business and provides the additional money that can help most business problems. If any of this rings a bell to you, and if you want more business, I sincerely recommend reading the articles listed below.

In conclusion: None of us are immune to the benefits of peace of mind, nor the frustration of being underpaid. No different from you, your marketing people do the best thinking when they are paid well for it. Fortunately, when marketing is done well, everybody gets paid better!

Here are some articles that I have written regarding the cost of marketing and the mistake of placing cost above value. This is your reading assignment, and I hope you will enjoy them.

Photo Credit: Einstein photo courtesy of hetemeel.com.

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“How Much Does SEO Cost?” is The Wrong Question

If you are in a customer-facing job role, you have surely heard the common question of “how much does it cost?” Many of us hear it long before questions of value even come into consideration, and it seems especially common in SEO (search engine optimization).

I consider the “how much does it cost” shopping approach a very worthwhile reason to scream at somebody and demean them. I usually try to hold back that urge, but it is definitely scream-worthy. I have very often answered it by hanging up the phone. That is because I take it as an indication that the person asking will only see a dollar amount and not what it represents.

When it comes to SEO (search engine optimization), “how much does it cost” is absolutely the wrong question to open discussions. I will explain why the cost of SEO is far down the list of things which will matter, and whether you are on the buying side or selling side of SEO, this should be useful to you. I will also explain why the question of how much the SEO will cost is not only a moving target, but also ways to determine an appropriate cost.

First, consider this: The topic struck me when I see how often my wife, Chef and Owner of Mad Eliza’s Cakes and Confections, answers burning questions about the cost of wedding cake. It happens very often that a bride-to-be will ask how much her wedding cake will cost, before even having a good idea of the design or even how many guests it needs to feed. I find a lot of people shop for SEO the same way. From now on, you will know better!

The SEO Cost Should Be Based on the Need

There is no practical way of answering questions of the cost of SEO until the variable of need is addressed. Assessing the need for SEO should be based on client goals and accurate marketing projections. To get to the right number, you must have a good fix on the overall market potential, and how much market share can be reasonably expected at a given level of action.

This is not rocket surgery, but it does require more than just guesswork. A good projection will be based on multiple variables, but a good start is to know how many people are looking for what you offer.

If you are not clear on how many people are looking for you, and what they are looking for, close estimates can be made using tools such as SpyFu, WordTracker, and Google’s keyword tool. These tools can help you find out how many people are searching for what you offer, and provide a glimpse of the overall market potential.

More useful information on this topic is available in the article titled “Improve SEO Return on Investment (ROI) With Simple Math“.

The Point of Diminishing SEO Returns

It is possible to overestimate your efforts and do more SEO than you need. I have never seen it happen in real life, but the theory makes sense. If you are spending more money on SEO than the potential for your entire market, there is a point where it would be wasteful. However, the ugly monkey which stares many people in the face is that in the beginning, most SEO efforts will cost more than they return. So, this brings up the point of how far you can see into your future.

Short-Term SEO Cost vs. Increased SEO ROI Later

Let’s look at this with a bit of logic. There is no return on investment (ROI) at the point when you write the first check for SEO. Having short term (30, 60, and 90 day) goals is important for most companies. When more effort is focused on short term SEO goals than long term goals, the expected overall ROI is lowered. There is a balancing point which is important to reach.

If you need to meet short term objectives in order to produce cashflow to achieve longer term goals, the end cost will generally be higher. This is because you are overemphasizing the short term objectives just to pay for the higher return long term goals.

Where SEO Cost Goes Off The Rails

While I was writing this article, I was distracted by the ding of a message coming from the live chat on my contact page. It was from a really nice guy named Eric, and here is how the chat went:

[11:04] Eric: Hi Mark I’m interested in asking you about some of your services if you have a few minutes

[11:04] murnahan: Sure.

[11:05] murnahan: You are welcome to ring me if you prefer. My direct line is *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* or my Skype username is “murnahan”.

[11:05] Eric: I came across your site researching SEO tips and first off, great information. I’m trying to gain an understanding of SEO, and it’s obviously very in-depth. I’m a vey tech savvy person but not really on the “up and up” for SEO. Anyway, I manage a national moving company, and we’re looking to increase our search traffic. What type of services do you offer that you think could help us out?

[11:07] murnahan: There are a lot of answers to that question, but perhaps the best one is this: I can make your company more attractive, somewhere along the lines of sex and bacon.

[11:08] Eric: Hm. I do like both of those things

[11:08] murnahan: When you make your company more attractive, the word spreads, and you get bigger pay checks.

[11:08] murnahan: See what I mean … most people do! LOL

[11:08] Eric: I would actually like to speak with you. can I call now?

[11:09] murnahan: sure … my ears are on.

Well, Eric called me and we spoke for a while. It was a good talk, and I listened to what his company does, and where they hope to go with it. As we talked, I was thinking … I do that a lot. One of my first thoughts was how important it is for a moving company to gain people’s confidence. I have heard a lot of nightmares about how moving companies break stuff, steal stuff, and scam people out of extra money once they have your stuff in their trucks. In fact, I have a friend who is in a lawsuit against his mover right now.

Eric asked me if I had any ideas on how I could help his company. Although this is the exact stuff I am paid to do, I thought I’d at least let him know I was listening and thinking. I discussed a few ideas with Eric about how we could make his moving company a little more sex and bacon-like.

Since his company has complete access to people’s stuff, I suggested that overcoming the potential customers’ fears about movers would be an important step to increasing their business. Of course, this is only one piece of a larger strategy, but a critical one.

I told Eric I thought it would be really neat for them to walk into each job and hang a half dozen IP cameras on the walls and provide customers a website login in case they want to look in on the progress. Then I pointed out that the cost of an 8 gigabyte SD card is under 30 bucks, and it may be cool to hand people a complete video record of their move when he hands them their bill. Not only could this set them apart as a more trustworthy company, it could also be a nice benefit for people to document all of their belongings for insurance purposes. It would provide customers with greater confidence, and give them something valuable, all at once.

OK, so it may cost a few bucks. It could easily have a one-time cost a thousand bucks or more per truck for wireless cameras and a laptop with a built-in Internet connection. That is not bad, considering it is a tiny fraction of the cost of a tractor trailer and other moving equipment. It would take them an extra 10-20 minutes (of a 4-6 hour job) to hang some stick-on hooks to place the cameras, and $30 for an SD card. The technology part would be a breeze, for me. Heck, I did a 6,000 mile live mobile webcast from a race car. This one would be a no-brainer, and the moving guys would only have to know how to turn on a laptop and click a “start” button.

Can you imagine how much that relatively small extra effort could pay them with customer confidence? Can you imagine what would happen if major tech blogs picked up the story of their success in using technology to overcome real-world trust barriers? It could make a nice press release for tech bloggers, television, and more. Can you imagine how that could affect their SEO?

How Much Does SEO Cost Now?

I never worked with a moving company, and this idea sprouted up fresh from a short conversation during a free consultation. It gets even better if Eric pays me for my ideas. Eric didn’t call to ask me about the cost of SEO. He asked the right questions, centered around value and calculated return on investment.

When he asked me about how much SEO would cost, it was more about how much he needs to beg, borrow, and steal to get the results that he wants for his company. He understands that good marketing is what makes companies bigger, and that bad SEO can cost a lot more than good SEO. That is a whole lot different than simply fearing the cost of SEO.

Get the SEO Questions Right

If you know the right questions to ask about SEO, you will have a lot better results. It will help you to avoid being taken advantage of by SEO lies, and to realize why SEO is a lot more than just technical geeky work.

I have always said that coffee and cigarettes are the best SEO and social media marketing tools. If that sounds crazy, please be sure to see this video explaining why I know it is true.

My Answers About “How Much Does SEO Cost”

Every search engine optimizer will have a different answer about the cost of SEO services. Some of them will be right, and some of them will be woefully wrong. We each work differently, and each have different skill sets and levels of marketing talent. In my case, I require a sizable investment, and I am not a good match for most companies. I prefer to only work with two to four clients at a time, and my projects come with a three to twelve month commitment. That should pretty well explain why I don’t do SEO for dog walkers.

Something important to consider is that until the other important questions are answered, the matter of cost will always be incorrect. This is simply not a commodity business, and everybody will have different needs and expectations. Throwing around dollar amounts is a waste of time if the purchaser and the provider do not fully understand each other, and the job at hand.

I want to leave you with these thoughts regarding the cost of SEO from my perspective:

Yes, I have a family of five, and each of them like to eat every day.
Yes, I do own a motorcycle that cost more than my first two houses, combined.
Yes, that is a real Picasso hanging in my living room (pictured above).
Yes, it will cost you a lot more than the money in my hand to get my attention.
Yes, my clients always earn more profit from my work than I do!
Yes, I will probably scream at you and hang up the phone if you call me to ask “how much does SEO cost?”

Some search engine optimizers will promise 1,000 links to your website and first page ranking in Google for $300. Isn’t that search engine optimizer a great deal?

Now, please answer me … do you really think that it is the same thing wherever you go?

Here are some related articles I have written regarding the cost of SEO and placing cost above value. I hope you will enjoy them.

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Are You Ready to Market Like Einstein?

Marketing is what makes things sell, and it is what makes businesses profitable. Without marketing, whether word of mouth, television, radio, print, Internet, or some other medium, even the best companies with the best products will fail. Somebody has to make buyers aware of an offering, and do so in a desirable way, before it will sell. That is marketing in a nutshell.

Great marketing takes us by the nose and leads us to a brand. The best marketing makes us think. Sometimes it makes us laugh, and sometimes it makes us cry, but it always makes us think. When it makes us think enough, it makes us talk about it. It enters our conversations around the water cooler, at little league games, sitting at a bar among friends, and in boardrooms. When marketing is done at optimum levels, it permeates our conscious and our subconscious. That is the kind of marketing that makes the difference between Fortune 500 companies and all the others who came and left. It is also the kind of marketing that makes the difference between your little company and the little bigger company you want it to be. It only makes sense for you to want to know how to market better.

Marketing is not just about putting your words out to a bunch of people. Marketing also means bridging the divide between the way a producer thinks and the way their consumers think. It is not something that everybody is built for, but it is something they can practice and become better at. A lot of people can perform the more menial tasks associated with marketing, and millions of them can clearly send a tweet, update their Facebook, spam LinkedIn, or write a blog. Only a relatively few will make the necessary sacrifices of planning, learning, and stepping outside of themselves enough to do something truly brilliant that attracts people to them. It is precisely why marketing is not, and will never be a commodity.

Today’s Murnahanism: Good marketers must answer why their marketing is more expensive than others. Great marketers refuse to answer, because they don’t want the client who doesn’t already know.

Brilliant marketing comes with a cost. The cost can vary greatly, and I don’t just mean money, either. It often comes with the cost of a marketer who studies people and understands what drives them to take action. It takes somebody with a uniquely analytical mind who thinks differently than those around them. It comes with a whole lot of what I call “brain sweat”. If you are unprepared to afford these traditional costs associated with brilliant marketing, you had better be ready to sweat a lot, with your brain.

Are You Ready for Einstein-Style Brain Sweat?

If you are dedicated to your marketing, you must exercise your thinking. Einstein was a great marketer. Although it was not his vocation, in many ways he was one of the best marketers ever. After all, we have all heard of him, and he was quite effective at selling his ideas to the world. If you think it was easy, just try marketing theoretical physics and see if you can make a household name for yourself. Some of Einstein’s greatest struggles were in bridging the gap between his thinking and the conventional wisdom around him. He had to look at things from other peoples’ perspective in order to understand how to best explain his thoughts to them, and thus “sell” his ideas. The cost to Einstein was that he was criticized by many and became a bit “crazy” by some standards. Brain sweat does that to a person. It is a huge challenge to carry such divergent thoughts of both the producer and the consumer and know how to package them and sell them. In my estimation, this is the greatest challenge of marketing.

The best marketers I have ever met are all just a bit “crazy”. I think most marketers prefer the term “eccentric” over “crazy”. Trying to think like other people is tough. It was tough for Einstein to try and think like others around him enough to get his ideas through to them, and it is similarly challenging for many people trying to market their product or service. It tends to stretch a person’s imagination. It is like a rigorous brain exercise, and like any exercise, it makes you stronger with repetition.

I have often been called “eccentric”, but if you ask me, I am crazier than a shithouse squirrel (I wanted to say “shithouse rat” but my editor asked me to change it). I push myself just a little closer to insanity every time I try to understand people and how to most effectively market something to them. It is my job, and I quite enjoy it. They say there is a fine line between higher thinking and insanity. Personally, I try my best to straddle that line with one foot on either side. It beats being bored. It does not mean that I am calling myself smarter than others, it just means that I use what brain I have, and I push it to an uncomfortable limit where the competition is not willing or able to go. That is often what it takes to create the best marketing.

Einstein kept pushing forward even when other scientists were not on his side. He knew his product, and he persevered against the odds. Einstein was fortunate to have much assistance to see him through his research, but most businesses (and most other theoretical physicists) are not so fortunate. Albert Einstein’s marketing was often just good enough to receive his next round of funding and to continue his work. Most businesses only have one shot to get it right, and to achieve enough market penetration to sustain them through to the next higher level.

Are You Feeling Brilliant Yet?

The process of learning how to produce great marketing is long and hard. It would be great if I could just hand you a “brilliant switch” that you could turn on and instantly start thinking like your customers. I don’t have a learning course to sell, and although I say that I am for hire, I say “no” to the vast majority of the people who try to hire my services (largely because I am not cheap). What I can offer is a pretty sizable blog archive of marketing articles that may help jump start your thinking about your customers and how to address the challenges of marketing what you offer. I hope that it will help you.

If you are not ready to think more like your customers and dedicate more of your mind to your marketing, it is best to leave it to the people who do it for a living. Otherwise, you risk regurgitating the same old junk that has become so commonplace on the Internet. It does not work the way many people may lead you to believe, and it comes at a much higher risk of failure.

7 Reasons Your Marketing Sucks

Get ready to feel defensive, because I am going to tell you what you are doing wrong. I am going to share seven (of many) things that suck about your marketing efforts. These are things that you are doing wrong, or not doing at all which suck so bad it is like a vacuum cleaner pulling money right out of your pocket. I am not telling you how terrible you are at your marketing just so you can pout about it and leave nasty comments on my blog. I am telling you this so you can stop going broke and making bad excuses for your failures. Note that I am also not telling you this to sell you a solution, because if you are screwing these things up, you are probably not in my target audience. I get paid for my work, and if you are screwing up this badly, you cannot afford me.

Got it? OK then, pick up your bottom lip and stop drooling on yourself about all the money you are going to earn with this new information. I am not giving you the keys to the kingdom. I am just going to try and help your marketing to suck less. So let’s stop sucking and start fixing some of your marketing screw-ups.

In case you wondered: Do I really have to be so abrasive? Not really, but unless I slap you around a little and let you know how much terrible marketing really sickens me, you may not get the point as clearly as I intend it. Maybe it will help you to realize that this is not just another ploy to dig my hands into your pockets. Besides those points, who wants to read another dull blog post about how to perform better marketing? I think the Internet already has plenty of that. Heck, have you seen my archive? Yeah, you didn’t pay close enough attention or your marketing would probably not suck this badly.

On with the list! Here are seven reasons your marketing sucks. These are not in order of importance or suckness. They all suck, and I will bet a photo of my middle finger that you are doing at least a couple of these.

Reason One That Your Marketing Sucks: Lack of Measurement

It is really easy for people to just keep tossing out their name and trying different ways to increase their business, but if your results are not measurable and accounted for, your marketing sucks. What good is it to gain more business and not know precisely why, and how to repeat it? I see this a lot, and it is a novice mistake that you make because you do not understand the value of good marketing. Without useful measurement, you never will.

Reason Two That Your Marketing Sucks: Lack of Plan

When you do not have a plan, it is hard to have proper measurement. Many would-be great marketing efforts fail by lack of a sustainable plan. A plan includes research, goals, measurement, budget, and good old fashioned hard work. If you are opposed to work, you really should avoid marketing what you offer anyway.

Reason Three That Your Marketing Sucks: Lack of Budget

A measurable plan will still suck if there is no budget. People tell me all the time that they do not have a marketing budget. Seriously? No marketing budget? How can you be in business and not have a budget set aside for marketing? A marketing budget should be based on known factors surrounding your market and it uses logic-based, mathematically provable facts. This is not mythical, this is the real world. If you don’t have a marketing budget, your marketing sucks … and it sucks really bad.

Reason Four That Your Marketing Sucks: Lack of Goals

A goal does not need to be 120 pages of unsustainable crap. It should be easy to understand and it should be achievable. It should be based on real information, and not on hype, fear, or other subjective junk your mind will throw at you. Goals should be meaningful. Just think about this: If some thug comes to pick up your daughter for a date, do you look at him differently if he lacks goals? Set some purposeful and researched goals so that your marketing can begin to suck less.

Reason Five That Your Marketing Sucks: Selling Product

You are trying to sell a product or service rather than address the reasons somebody would want your product or service. If you want to sell a car, you are not selling four wheels and a bunch of metal. You are selling freedom to roam, fun road trips, family safety, peace of mind, personal status, comfort, pride, dealership reputation, brand reputation, and other things. If you are selling the car without understanding the reasons people will benefit from buying your car, your marketing is wasted … and it sucks.

Reason Six That Your Marketing Sucks: Price-Selling

We all heard about this recession, right? It is not a secret anymore, but if you are marketing based on cost over value, your marketing sucks. There will always be somebody willing to sell it for less and bastardize your market. When you join them, there is little chance you will ever beat them. Raving fans and brand advocates are not created by price tags. Look at Apple Computers as an example of not selling based on price alone. They may not rule the personal computer market, but they rule their market.

Reason Seven That Your Marketing Sucks: Zombie Marketing

Zombie herding is a thing of the past, but yet you still try this against all odds. When you think that simply finding a bunch of people to pitch your goods to is marketing, your marketing sucks. You try to reach out with your message as far and wide as possible, but then forget the importance of all those active and vibrant living human beings who will spread the message for you if you just stop treating them like zombies. Tweeting and Facebooking your latest special is easy. Any mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, drooling and babbling fool can do that … and they are! Pull yourself together and be memorable. Your customers are real people with real brains. Stop treating them like zombies.

I see this all day long on the Internet. People tend to forget that the intent is to reach real live people, and not just some fuzzy demographic.

Summary of Marketing That Sucks

There I go again, giving away what I know. I keep saying I will stop doing that, because when you know everything I know, I am out of a job. The good news is that if everybody who comes to me for marketing had this much sucking in their market, I would not want to do my job anyway. Knuckleheads be gone! Come back when you begin to suck less and want to do more business.

Bonus Reason Your Marketing Sucks: You have no backbone and you are trying to please too many people. Build a brand and stand strong to the brand. If you are afraid that somebody will not like your brand, let me burst that bubble for you early. Some people will hate you. They will hate everything you stand for and everything you do. If you are too afraid to polarize your audience, give up now. Being famous often requires having the guts to be infamous.

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