So, a question: what’s the point of marketing?
It sounds like a simple question, but whenever I ask this to Recruitment or Search Firm owners it’s rare that I ever get the correct answer…
Here are some of the common responses I get:
To build my brand…
To get my name out there…
To get new business…
To get new clients…
That’s just to name a few…
And although some of these responses are half right, they don’t quite paint the full picture…
Because the purpose of marketing is to make you a PROFIT!
In other words, the point of marketing is make a “Return On Investment”, or ROI.
Most Recruitment & Search Firm owners only see the upfront “expense” of marketing…
And so shy away from investing anything substantial…
The result?
They’re left with very few leads, not attracting enough clients and end up actually loosing money in the long run…
Think about this…
If for every $20 you gave me, I was willing to give you $100 back (or what ever your local currency is)… When would you stop giving me money?…
You don’t need to be a genius to know the answer is… “NEVER!”
In fact… If you’re really smart, you’ll give me $40 instead and get $200 back…
If you’re getting a return why would you stop investing?..
That’s the way you need to look at your marketing…. You invest in attracting the client… and then the client pays you back over time…
Sounds simple enough right??
In fact, when you boil it all down this is exactly how an effective marketing systems work: they’re designed so they make more money than they cost to run.
In other words: marketing is not a cost. It’s an investment.
And anyone who sees it as a cost is someone who doesn’t understand it at all.
What’s more… we’re right back at testing and measuring again, because we can’t decide whether our ROI is positive (profit) or negative (loss) unless we’re collecting and analysing the data.
It gets even better. Remember the 80/20 Principle we looked at a couple of days ago?
Well, if you’re smart and look at the numbers with 80/20 lenses, you’ll see 80% of your profits come from just 20% of your marketing. Once you know that you can put more money into what works and less into what doesn’t. That’s an easy way to grow your business very, very quickly indeed.
All of which reminds me of a question I need to ask you: do you have a marketing budget?
And if so, why?
More on this tomorrow…
In the mean time, take care, take action and be relentless…
Terry Edwards
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