Marketers are said to waste half of their annual budget, but they don't know which half. Your marketing budget is one of your most valuable resources; it represents your investment in your company. These dollars must be appropriately spent because your business's growth relies on it. The question is, how effectively are you utilizing it? Do you know whether it's even working? In other words, are you blowing your marketing dollars?
According to Rakuten Marketing's 2018 survey of 1,000 marketers globally, respondents claimed that they waste an average of 26% of their funds on inefficient channels and strategies. Furthermore, over half of those polled admitted to misusing at least 20% of their budgets. That's a lot of waste when worldwide discretionary marketing expenditure exceeds $1 trillion yearly. What are the root causes of this immense expense? Let's look at three significant reasons why this might be happening to businesses you know or, worse, your own.
1. You aren’t communicating your value.
Today, your customers have more alternatives than ever before. People no longer go to the local hardware shop, grocery store, or insurance agent to get what they need. Digital sources now place hundreds of your competitors in your customer's fingers. If you don't clearly articulate why customers should select you over your rivals, they'll either buy from the company that best conveys their value or choose based only on price. So, how can you differentiate yourself from the competition and attract buyers' attention? You define and express your distinct value proposition. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to outline what makes them truly unique and articulate that to their audience, meaning their advertising dollars may be getting them seen but not truly heard by the market.
2. You don’t know who your audience is.
Speaking of a business's audience, do you know who your primary consumer is? And no, anyone who will buy your product doesn't count. Your target audience refers to the specific group of consumers most likely to want your product or service. Customers that do not meet your requirements will not be excluded if you target a particular audience. Instead, it enables you to direct your funds and messaging to the individuals most likely to buy from you. This is the most efficient technique to reach your target audience while spending the least money. If you don't have the correct audience targeting in place, spending money on marketing, in general, might be a waste of time. In fact, it's believed that every year, $37 billion is spent on advertisements that fail to attract companies' ideal customers. When thinking about the consumers you're currently targeting, consider the following:
Why do they care about our products or services?
What makes them more likely to buy our goods or services versus a different consumer?
How do our prospects hear about us in the first place?
How do we then turn them into a lead?
How are we nurturing our leads to turn them into customers?
How can we make them repeat customers and have them refer others?
It’s critical to work on audience strategy before spending money on tactics.
3. You haven't defined your goals or how to measure them.
One last source of waste is succumbing to metrics that are easy to track but provide minimal insight, such as page visits, likes, and so on. They're appealing since they're viewable and can look great on graphs, but they can be harmful when you begin to place undue importance on them. Instead of focusing solely on these data points, you must create clear goals with relevant indicators, making it easier to identify where to devote your marketing budget for optimum effect. A proper marketing budget must connect your goals with what you're going to spend to reach them.
Stop Wasting Your Time and Money Today
Marketing is about more than just posting on social media, paying for an ad, or running a commercial and hoping it works. Marketing should instead be viewed as a system, just like your systems for production, accounting, and human resources. It should be planned, well-researched, thought-out, and continuously maintained. If you’re ready to stop wasting your marketing dollars and start marketing with a purpose, contact us today to learn how we can build you a marketing system that delivers the desired results.
Contact us today at (304) 646 8419 or leave us a message here on our website.
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