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Spending Money On Marketing is a Waste of Time

Written by: Peter Lawless

Article Overview: You must attract your potential customer's interest in less than seven seconds. If you don't, you will have wasted every Euro spent. Yes, that is right, just 7 seconds for the headline and subtext, to hook your potential client.

Spending Money On Marketing is a Waste of Time

To those of you that survived the above seven second test; this article will help ensure that all monies your marketing team spends are spent wisely. If you are not interested any more, then I have attracted the wrong reader thus far. This leads to the second key observation about your headline. You must ensure that those seven seconds are spent conveying the right message to the correct audience. If that message was wrong, since marketing is a one sided conversation, you don't get a chance to correct your mistake.

In marketing, the only way you can get feed back is by testing multiple versions of your message with small groups of your target market.

Direct selling is actually much easier to get right. Conversely it is also much more expensive to get wrong! Sales people can actually help a customer see the value of what your products or solutions will bring them. While this may seem like an art, it is made a lot easier due to the fact that the sales person and the customer are engaged in an active dialogue. A good sales person will actually lead that dialogue by asking questions that help the customer visualize what your product will enable them to do. In marketing, the only way you can get feed back is by testing multiple versions of your message with small groups of your target market.

So now that you know what you need to do, and how to ensure that what you are doing is right, the million dollar question that remains, is how you create that message.

For this article, I will keep things at 10,000 feet and not go into specifics, suffice it to say, I will show you the key steps to creating that message. I will also assume that you have done all your market research and you know which markets you are targeting and what your competition is offering.

So the key steps are as follows;

* Write down, for your target market, what problems or desires your product or service solves or fulfils.
* Clearly articulate what solving those problems or fulfilling those desires would enable the people or companies within your target market to do.
* Demonstrate how the decision maker within your target market would put a value on the ability to do what your product has enabled them to do.
* Decide exactly what you want that decision maker to do, when they read your ad or marketing communication – this is called a “call to action”.
* Now, what is that worth to you – how much are you prepared to spend to get that phone ringing, email coming in or fax whirring?
* The last question is very important, because the answer to this, fixes your marketing budget. Once you know your marketing budget, then you can decide which mediums, such as online, newsprint, classified ads, etc. that you should be utilizing.

Once that is agreed, you can write your headline, sub text and body copy including appropriate visuals, to get your leads rolling in. If you have done your homework well, the leads that do come in should be good strong qualified leads yield sales.

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Article Tags: correct audience, desires, dialogue, dollar question, market research, marketing team, mistake, monies, observation, one sided conversation, sales person, second test, seven seconds, small groups, specifics, target market



Related Forum Posts
Re: Has anyone bought targetted visitors? - I had the same experience Orxan had when buying guaranteed targeted traffic. Waste of money!
Re: What or Who Sparks Your Business Interest - It's interesting to see what the different motivations are by Age Category. I've noticed this around me: 20 to 29yr olds: Motivator: Money 30 to 39yr olds: Motivator: Success/Ambition 40 to 49yr olds: Motivator: Family comes first 50 to 59yr olds: Motivator: Leaving a legacy i've only gone that far in my analysis. Of course this is a braid generalization but I find that it helps direct my marketing to individuals in different age brackets. The product/service can be the same but the Marketing message (Benefit Statement) to a 20 year will revolve around "Money" vs. a 30-something would be on their "Self Image"
Re: Fill in the blank: The biggest thing I waste my time on is: - I thought of online games as a way to relax a bit or to get a break from writing. I used to play RPG too like Ragnarok and I'll admit that sometimes I do like to try the RPGs on facebook whenever i see my nephews and nieces playing them. But I know that once I get started, i would be addicted, so better not even Try. David is right! Spending time on internet marketing is far more productive and can be fun too! [quote="Mal Tindle":14m5rb9v]Hi members, Like Rachel, my biggest waste of time was when I was invited to be a neighbour for a friend on Farmville (or was it Farmtown, not sure). Being quite competitive I found myself spending time on that which I thought was a harmless diversion at the time. I came back to my senses after a while and got back to Internet Marketing. Mal.[/quote:14m5rb9v]
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - We've also expanded the list for Contest and All-Time Leaders. It's great to now see David and Yinka on the All Time list and recognize the contributions they've made to the forums!
Question: What has been your biggest business challenge? - Regardless of the industry they may be in, it seems all small business owners and entrepreneurs face similar key challenges in growing their business and becoming as profitable as they would like. These can be grouped into the categories of "Time", "Team", "Money", and "Exit Strategy". What has been your most significant challenge, the one that seems to be your biggest hurdle to moving forward and achieving the level of business success (however you define that) that you would like to? If you could have one issue solved in your business, what would that be? Your insights are invaluable and I appreciate your honesty. Regards, Gavin


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