Marketing Investments: A Necessary Cost for Success

I just stepped out of a sales call and I got into an interesting quick conversation with one of the people at the office I was visiting. He mentioned his higher up’s and how it was frustrating to try and get more exposure for the software they had developed. It was the usual gripes. People want to spend $3 to make $300,000 in revenue.

As a professional in the digital marketing industry, I just had to give my two cents. Marketing is like any other field. It revolves around growth and poring time and resources. So like any business, to grow your revenue, you need to invest. Invest in what? I don’t know, maybe employees, phone systems, security cameras, software, etc.

What Exactly are Marketing Investments?

This applies to marketing as well. Yes, many people have written great blog posts about how they were able to execute a campaign with relatively no capital. Is this the norm though? Definitely not. Any marketing campaign requires many aspects for it to be successful. I’ll take you through the basics of what tasks you should expect:

• Outreach: Online and In-Person
• Search Engine Optimization: Keyword Research, Copywriting & Link Building
• Graphics: Designing appropriately branded material
• Photography: Pictures of your business, product/service
• Analytics & Software: Ability to track campaigns and methods to optimize your efforts

Now yes, you can do a lot of this yourself. To be honest, I do most of these tasks. However, I’m paid for it, trained for it. When you’re running a business, it is highly plausible you could roll up your sleeves, pick up some books and get cracking at it. However, like most successful business people, you probably don’t have the time. That’s not what you excel in and so essentially your giving up opportunity cost.

On Behalf of Everyone in The Marketing World

So I speak for all the designers, marketers, copywriters, artists, illustrators, and filmmakers out there. Just because we can do it and that we can do it for ourselves for free, does NOT mean that we are obligated to do it for you or another business for free. You’re asking us to spend our time, opportunity cost, to help your business out.

Let’s just be real. Let’s just be honest. To make money and grow your business you need to invest money. Everyone knows that. Yet for some reason when it comes to marketing, not everyone knows that. If you fail to realize this, then your business will stagnate.