The only marketing that costs money .....

Thanks Mike, ROI is a good approach to selling marketing.

I called myself an Independent Marketing Appraiser ... and offered a FREE evaluation of a business's marketing.

Keep in mind small businesses are slammed with Ad Salespeople...to the point of an almost hatred...which is the blowback some of you get when you try to sell...

Coupons (in books, postcards, on pizza boxes, menus, etc.)

In my area many former coupon users have quit running coupons because it has become too costly, they have built a customer base of DISCOUNT buyers...see, if they don't get the discount, they use someone else's coupon.

A few years ago you could sell them on the idea of using a coupn to get a new customer who then had a life time value that was worth something...today, with all the online stuff, think Groupon plus all you guys coming in trying to sell them some marketing...well, resistance is getting higher and higher.

What I did was examine their current marketing WITHOUT having any one way to sell them, for example, the Radio guys are known as pushy, newpapers are now begging for advertisers, and along comes a SEO, web designer, a video guy, someone with a pizza box program, a giant postcard...in ohter words...YOU.

And many of you are getting a blast of cold air in your face because the business owners are getting "fed up" with advertising which brings in discount customers.

So, by using the ROI pitch, and knowing what your competition charges, you can help them make up their minds, often to your favor or advantage by NOT trying to sell them, but by helping them sort out all the options they have...and ROI is one of the best ways to do it.

gjabiz

Absolutely agree...

It reminds me also of COI - Cost Of Inaction

What does it cost you every week and every month to delay your marketing?
What is it costing you in sales by doing nothing?

It's crazy how many people think response rate equals success.

It's all about ROI. As Dan Kennedy says, "We bank money, not response rates."

I've helped a local pizza shop total change the way they think about marketing. They advertised in a local ad magazine and told me they didn't make their money back from the cost of the ad. They told me how many customers they got... I showed them... if these customers start coming back every week or two, within a year they will make all of their money back plus profit!

Just because the marketing campaign doesn't pay of today, doesn't mean it won't bring it tons of profit down the road.

...then why do companies continue to invest in the Yellow Pages? Habit?

If you can't get a sale with a guarantee ROI, then they don't TRUST you.

This is great advice, I wish I knew this years ago

I'm always jumping the gun on most of the stupid methods that cost a fortune and make you nothing in return