Do I REALLY have to do marketing? Yes!

And this is a GREAT thing.

What is marketing all about? Some think it is a necessary evil. Some think it is evil and unnecessary. Others think it’s a big waste of money. Others embrace it with open purse strings. And some of us wear our broad shoulders, take our hits, and consider it our livelihood. I have built a career on marketing and I do not aspire to be evil. Nor do I aspire to waste anybody’s money. What I do aspire to is educating small business entrepreneurs on how NOT to spend excessive amounts of money to achieve success in their business AND their lives, because when you are an entrepreneur, there is no choice but to be frugally intelligent about your choices.

So what is marketing and how do you do it without blowing all your revenue? Marketing is art and science. It is intuition and education based. It is a puzzle to put together. The science of marketing is the act of getting the right message to the right person at the right time to make a difference in both of your lives. The art of marketing is being specific, consistent, creative yet honest in everything you do: your message, your product, your pricing, your business model, your media, your audience. The way you define your business from the very beginning must be clear and serve a genuine purpose that improves somebody’s life somewhere. Every choice you make in where, how and when you communicate must be deliberate. Who you communicate to must be focused and targeted.

There is a whole lot of ‘sweat equity’ to planning your business before you even get out the gate. And sometimes you will want to make a marketing ‘spend’ on hiring experts to research and provide analysis on industry, consumer or marketing opportunities if it is not your forte. But once this early labourious work is done (the first time, as it should be an ongoing effort), and you have clarity, confidence and focus on what you are marketing, why and to whom, you are in shipshape to create simple yet effective marketing strategies that are cost-effective and results-driven. So before you go ahead and spend money on advertising or any other marketing strategy, please take a hard look at what you are going to say, where and why first. If this isn’t clear, your money will be wasted before you even communicate the first time. Like it or not, great marketing is part of your livelihood too. Making great marketing decisions before you ever “tell the world” your message not only saves you money, it is the key to making money.

Do you have cost-effective marketing tips or questions about how to make frugal marketing choices? Share below!