When you start a business, and even if you’ve been in business for some time, sometimes the most fun part is making the creative materials, signs, poster cards, business cards, etc. It’s the experience that proves to ourselves and others that our business is real and legitimate.
As a full service digital marketing company, designing logos, marketing collateral, branding and style guides, is one of our favorite parts of the process as well. We love to provide for our clients exactly what they need to reflect their business in a credible way.
Over time we have noticed that in the excitement of business owners, some feel the need for marketing and promotions before the product or service is ready to sell.
We want to reduce your anxiety and streamline your workflow by evaluating
five reasons you might not need a marketing company after all.
1. There isn’t enough money in the runway to spend on marketing and advertising
2. Not enough sales for marketing advertising
3. Your business is not a good match
4. You may be buying or selling the business
5. Sometimes not cost effective
6. What Pullman Marketing Can Do To Help Small Businesses
- There isn’t enough money in the runway to spend on marketing and advertising
In specific niches, it may take more time and money upfront to find the correct audience and discover an appropriate Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). This may require an advertising spend of 60% to 80% more upfront.
Even though you may become more established over time and can afford the routine maintenance, ad spend, and fees, the upfront costs to start everything might be prohibitive.
Advertising isn’t a magic bullet and we’ve written about that before and want to be honest about the results for your new business and stewarding that capital.
- Not enough sales for marketing advertising
This tends to be more of an issue with retail-based businesses. When we look at your profit margin compared to your CPA, if the CPA narrows your profit margin too much, then Facebook, AdWords, and Snapchat advertising may not be the correct way to go.
We have advised people in the past to not even do digital marketing but to only do in person face-to-face meetings. This is because what they would need to do for digital advertising would cost them between $1,500 and $5,000.
The alternative would be putting together a meeting demo to present in person to decision-makers. The cost for this is between $30 and $250 depending on the product and transportation costs. This would help to ensure your profit margins and help you generate revenue immediately instead of waiting for a longer digital-only sales cycle.
- Your business is not a good match
Legal and compliance can be one of the major reasons you would not need a marketing company. A great example of this would be medical companies that want to try and do targeted campaigns. Sometimes it can work, but we have not seen compelling digital-only case studies for medical ads. In addition to that, there can be “compliance” issues with advertising, also known as legal compliance with the industry, that comes up in the process.
At this junction, you may need to hire a lawyer or a Compliance Officer in addition to the marketing firm. The Compliance Officer may need to review all creative and marketing campaigns before anything happens.
There are can even be HIPAA, FERPA, and GDPR related concerns with your marketing and advertising. For these types of clients, we recommend talking to your lawyer before even talking to a marketing company. The lawyer may know marketing companies within your specific niche that can be compliant and avoid potential legal setbacks.
- You may be buying or selling the business
Buying or selling your business is not the right time to engage a marketing company for more advertising. You may even be faced with closing your business and are looking for a last effort to make or break your business.
If you’re buying your business, wait for the sale to be fully complete. It can be hard to be patient, but last minute hiccups can be costly. Even buying a franchise, there can be a lot to learn. One of the benefits of a franchise is that they provide you with standardized marketing and advertising materials that we can use on your behalf.
However, it’s not good to count your chickens before they hatch. We would love to talk to you beforehand but we will not push for ongoing services before the sale of your new business is complete.
If you are looking to close because of low revenue, then marketing is not the answer. Odds are there are things that are already making it unhealthy and those are elements that marketing and advertising cannot fix. We highly recommend contacting your local Small Business Development Center (SBDC) office for assistance moving forward and discovering the best path.
- Sometimes not cost effective
For young businesses, it can be exciting to look at getting a new website and finding your market niche to sell your product in. An eCommerce website can be the right way to help users shop your wares and create a fantastic shopping experience.
The cost of an eCommerce website may outrun your potential early revenue, along with the necessary ad spend. For smaller retail-based home businesses, we are recommend to keep using your local community marketplaces to generate early revenue. Farmer’s Markets, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist can be strong starting points for your business. To grow past that and to get online, eBay and Etsy are good starting places for online retail of your products. Although these do have large fees, it removes the up
front risk and capital of an eCommerce website, while building your email list and audience.
Your email list and audience are arguably more valuable
than an eCommerce website.
Once you have your audience, you can begin to transition them to an eCommerce website (platform) that you own and control and can grow your business on your own terms with fewer fees. For larger businesses, we don’t typically recommend relying solely on eBay and Amazon since they can change the rules very quickly, (http://www.wfmz.com/business/national-and-world-business/what-amazon-and-apples-deal-means-for-thirdparty-sellers/855666086) and they can remove your listings.
What Pullman Marketing is doing to help small businesses in 2019:
Pullman Marketing is a full-service digital marketing provider that can help with all the aspects above. We are here to be a resource, supplement your efforts and to act on your behalf as an internal marketing department for your company. We found a gap in the market for small businesses needing an online presence to act as the online digital “hub” of their digital marketing efforts. Most solutions are either too expensive, require too much technical setup, or promise great results that fall short.
Our new Start-Up Business Package provides you with a website that:
- Looks good on phones, tablets, and desktops – always!
- Preferred by Google and Bing compared to SquareSpace/Wix sites
- Includes free backups and security certificates ($170/yr value)
- Includes no-hassle website hosting services
- Includes local and online support
- Includes monthly website analytic reports
- Includes a price you can afford
Price: $250 (one-time) + $20/mo afterwards.
With this new package, we are providing small businesses an affordable way to get a website quickly and in a painless process.
Startup Package Customer Testimonial
We also provide:
- Simple Logo Design at $65/hr (avg. total is $575)
- Premium Office 365 Email $10/mo
- Google Ads starting at $100/mo
- Email Marketing Support
- Social Media Management
- Content Management
If you have any questions, please contact us at info@pullmanmarketing.com or fill out our form here to get started.
