If you’re a business owner and not investing in marketing, you’re missing a huge opportunity to grow and scale your business. Every business needs marketing. It took me a while to realize though that not everyone understands what marketing is, and why you need it in your business. I have a background in marketing and PR and it’s one of the many benefits to hiring me as an OBM. I find that usually all of my clients need a little bit of help building out and executing their marketing strategy.
So first, let’s define marketing.
Marketing: the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
I think there are a couple of key words in that definition that make people shy away from marketing -- the words selling and advertising. But to be honest, if you’re in business, that’s a part of it no matter how much you like it or not. It doesn’t have to feel icky or turn people away. In fact, good marketing does quite the opposite.
Here are 3 reasons why you should be investing in marketing in your business:
1. Generates brand awareness
If you’re not marketing your business how do you expect people to find you? You can’t only rely on word-of-mouth to generate business for the long-term. YES, word-of-mouth and referrals are great ways to generate business, but you need to establish yourself in your industry with proper marketing. Part of this is learning to show up where your audience is only. You can learn more about how not all marketing is the same in another blog post I wrote here.
2. Establishes Credibility
When you show up online, you’re establishing credibility in your space. You’re building your reputation so to speak. How do you do this? By providing valuable content and information to your target audience. Show up consistently so they can begin to build that know, like and trust factor with you. Think through your own process before you determine who you want to work with or what company you want to buy from. If you were to google a company, or search for someone in social media and they had either no presence online or an inconsistent one, would you decide to hire them, or would you buy from them? I know I wouldn’t. I am 1000x more likely to invest in a BRAND (person or company) that have established themselves, shows up consistently and provides me free value FIRST.
3. Not all marketing is the same
I go into much greater detail about this in another blog post, but I want to reiterate that not all marketing is the same. By investing in someone who knows what they’re doing in terms of marketing, you’re going to have much greater success, much faster. I’m not saying that you’ll never have success doing it on your own, but it surely won’t be as quick. There are SO many different marketing strategies you can take action on, but the thing is, just because it worked for Cindy Lou doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. Your business goals, your target audience, and your competitive market is likely very different than Cindy Lou’s. You need someone that can help you design and tailor a strategy and execute tactics specific to your business needs.
While I believe that there are other components that help a business be successful, I truly believe that investing in marketing is extremely beneficial for any company at (almost) any stage of business. It’s worth the investment.
What scares you about investing in marketing?
Katelyn Hamilton is an Online Business Manager and Get Your Sh!t Together Strategist. She helps busy entrepreneurs organize, strategize and prioritize their business to go from overwhelmed to out-in-front.
After spending 6 years in the corporate world working with multimillion dollar companies, top-rated chefs and celebrities, she launched her own business to find more flexibility and freedom. She matched her corporate salary in just one year of starting her business.
Katelyn is also a soon-to-be wife, stepmom, dog mama of two furry friends, fitness lover, sports fanatic (Go Dawgs) and dreams of living at the beach.
Click here to book a free call to talk more about your business goals and to see if hiring an OBM is the right fit for you.
