The core principles of marketing and advertising are time and money. Both are valuable resources, and time is truly money when you hire someone to handle these things.
Avoid these common mistakes to get more mileage out of your marketing and advertising budget:
Find the best advertising services. One of the most common questions to ask is, "Will this advertising service yield results if I make the purchase?" Naturally, we want to know if there is an equitable ROI. However, to take this question to the next level, you should be asking, "Will this advertising service yield better results than services I have already used?" Finding the best advertising services is a best guess when you're starting out. After you run some campaigns and do a little testing, it will become clear some resources yield better results than others.
Advertising should generate sales opportunities. If Google Ads generates one sales opportunity per $100 spent and LinkedIn generates two sales opportunities using the same budget, your money should go to the latter. The question then becomes, "If it seems so simple, why do people run into trouble?" Humans are naturally in pursuit of something better. This is not a bad thing, but when data becomes available, you'll know where most of your budget should go. You should spend 80 percent of your money on known returns and invest a smaller sum on discovering new opportunities.
Target advertising. If you're looking to target specific audiences, you should not be asking, "Where do I want to target my advertising?" Instead, you should ask, "Given that I have a finite budget, where should I target my advertising to yield the best results?" This produces better results by targeting audiences based on strategy and not just what you want.
Allocate strategic resources. Consider this scenario: Your company sells safety consulting services across the U.S., but you decide to spend money on a digital advertising campaign capable of targeting people across the globe. You might think, "I want to target the entire U.S. because I can sell to any state." While the common impulse is to proliferate resources across the U.S., you should instead allocate your precious resources, clicks and impressions to areas most likely to generate sales opportunities.
Target your audience. If you sell industrial tractor equipment, you should not target your advertising campaign by focusing on Houston's Museum District. Instead, you should target industrial and agricultural sectors where your audience is most densely populated. Often, people fear missing out on possible opportunities, thinking, "I need my ad to show up in case someone there wants something I sell." Remember that showing your ad nationwide does not increase the number of impressions or clicks you will get; it only spreads them out like cold butter on toast.
The core principles of marketing remain the same: Treat time and money as valuable resources. When it comes to getting the most mileage out of your advertising and marketing services, make sure you're asking the right questions.
For more information, visit www.mansfieldmarketing.com or call (713) 533-8899.
