Marketing your own business. Should You?

"The business owner that does his own marketing has a fool for a client."

Okay, that's not exactly how the saying goes. But this quote, often applied to people who serve as their own defense attorney in court, also applies to some business owners who try to save money by marketing their business without the help of a marketing professional.

I sat through a productivity seminar recently and we talked about how we often waste more time doing things on our own rather than paying someone to do it for us. My example was that I recently found myself up to my eyeballs in a new online email newsletter program that was very cumbersome to use. If I had just used the one I was familiar with, I could have done the newsletter faster and not spent two days trying to figure it out.

Among the other examples that people offered was a gentleman who hired a friend to do some basic drywall work in his home. His wife told him, "Watch closely how he does it so that you can do it next time and we don't have to pay." His response was classic. "Okay, the next time you go to your Ob/Gyn, I'd like to watch and learn so I can do it next time!"

Everyone wants to save money. But we are resigned to the fact that, in most cases, we just pay others to do certain tasks. Our car breaks down, we pay a mechanic. A pipe bursts, we pay a plumber. We have a toothache, a dentist performs a root canal. We pay a specialist because they have the necessary training, tools and techniques. They can do it faster, better and, more often than not, much cheaper in the long run. Just ask my wife how many times I started a "home repair project" and ended up paying more to have someone to repair my mistakes.

So, what makes some business owners believe they can market their business without help from a marketing professional? I recently had someone tell me, "Oh, it's just marketing. I can write a brochure or send a postcard. And my brother can design my website." And my favorite, "I'm not making any money so I can't afford to hire someone to do it for me."

It takes money to make money. Right? I attend numerous networking events and meetings. I watch the business owners interact. I see the business cards and/or brochures. I visit their websites. I hear the elevator pitches. And I can spot, without a doubt, which businesses do their own marketing...and are either really struggling or setting themselves up for failure.

When I meet with prospects and clients, I always ask what they've done in the past to market their business. They tell me what has worked and what hasn't. If something hasn't worked, it's usually due to one of these reasons:

• It was the wrong medium
• They missed their target audience
• They expected higher-than-average response rates
• They didn't have an attractive offer
• The execution was poor
• They didn't maintain frequency
• They didn't follow up the leads
• They didn't focus on cross-selling and up-selling to current customers

I've seen companies waste tens of thousands of dollars on marketing tactics. A marketing professional would have helped by planning, budgeting and making sure reasonable expectations were in place. And like a car mechanic, a marketing professional can fine tune a campaign to make it run more efficiently and analyze the ROMI (return on marketing investment).

So, unless you have a solid background in marketing and are marketing savvy, consider using a marketing professional. Even if its to bounce ideas off of or to seek advice before spending money on something that is not going to deliver customers, you'll be glad that you invested money up front rather than wasting a lot of money after it's too late.

To learn more about how BTK & Associates can help your business wade through all of the marketing muck and provide you with a sound marketing plan, visit www.btkmarketing.com or call 317.439.8923.