If you’re like many entrepreneurs I know, you are sick to death of hearing: “You just need to increase your marketing budget!”
Unfortunately the default response to declining results is to spend more. What rot.
The simple answer is don’t spend money on marketing that depreciates in the first place.
If you need to reach into your pocket next week to get the same “hit”, you are on a slippery slope. It will be increasingly hard to get the same results, which means you will be forking over more and more money, but spinning your wheels and getting no traction.
The litmus test is: Will your marketing be around next month?
If it won’t be around, don’t do it. Your Google Ads, Facebook ads and banner ads won’t be around once you put your credit card away.
In fact, anything where you are renting attention will vanish as soon as the money runs dry.
Invest in enduring marketing
In contrast, invest in marketing that will be around tomorrow, next week and next year. For example, write an article and post that on your blog because that blog post will still be there next month. Create a YouTube video or release an e-book because these will still exist in six months’ time.
Good marketing investments appreciate in value
The blog article that you posted last month is likely to be more valuable today than it was when you published it. If people have tweeted it, it will have more social proof than it did the day it went live.
It someone’s linked to it, it will have more authority than it did the day it went live and it someone has left a comment, then it will enrich the content and add value to the reader’s experience.
All these factors increase the value of that blog post and you can see how it compounds over time. The more you publish sustainable content the more you’ll be creating a marketing asset that appreciates in value.
If you pour money into marketing that depreciates, you will be chasing your tail until your money runs out.
Be the owner not the renter
Many marketers are hooked on the quick-fix of renting attention, but then struggle because there is nothing left to show for it at the end of the day. My experience suggests that focusing on being the publisher (owner) is infinitely better approach than being the advertiser (renter).
Publish your own content, be generous, help people and your audience will grow. Then you can communicate with them for free anytime you like. This is what building a marketing asset is all about.
The Web Strategy Planning Template helps you visualise and plan your marketing asset.
Adam Franklin is the co-author of ‘Web Marketing That Works’, a professional speaker, and co-founder of Bluewire Media.
