We get to pick up our new puppy in 8 weeks. We’re obsessively prepping and planning to give our puppy the best possible start.
I rode over to the farmer's market on Saturday to hang out with my friend E. (Yes, I'm a complete Portland clichè – shut up). E mentioned a friend who is also getting a puppy. The problem is that literally a week earlier, this friend had described herself as ‘not really a dog person.’ When E asked if she was planning to attend a puppy training program, she proclaimed that dog training class was too expensive.
But you know what’s really expensive? Coming home to a puppy with heat stroke because you left it home in the height of summer and it chewed through the cord on your portable air conditioner (true story).
Why is it that people think it’s cheaper to take shortcuts and skip steps? I see this all the time with marketing.
One of my clients launched a new site last year and it absolutely turbocharged their business with a 240% growth in sales.
This year at the beginning of their busy season, I suggested that we continue the momentum by leveraging their email list and paid ads to build out a funnel to continually attract new clients. This would have required a larger investment and they declared it wasn’t in the budget.
Last week during our monthly check-in they expressed concern that sales for this month are far below what they were last year and asked if I had any suggestions.
Another client parted ways when I raised my pricing about a year ago. They had been ignoring everything I told them about marketing for the 2 years we worked together. When I said I wanted to focus my business on digital marketing, they couldn’t afford my new rates because they hadn’t been marketing.
See a trend here?
If you can’t afford to train your puppy, then you can’t afford a puppy.
If you spend all your efforts on getting a website and have nothing left for ongoing marketing, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. It’s exactly like buying a car when you know you can’t afford gas or insurance. You’ll be stuck in the driveway with nowhere to go.
It’s better to have a Prius you can take on the road, than a Tesla that sits in your driveway like an expensive piece of art.
The marketing you do (or don’t do) now is going to have a big impact on the state of your business 6 months from now. What do you want your business to look like at the end of the year?
If you can’t afford to hire someone to help you with marketing, then you need to focus on sales until you can afford it or commit to learning to do it yourself (which is still going to cost you time and money).
Do it yourself.
Hire someone.
Do nothing.
What’s it going to be?
