 | The way I see it ... |
Businesses cannot “advertise their way to success.”
OF COURSE, there is a time and place for advertising. You have to let people know you exist, and you need to make a splash with new products or new services. Advertising is a good thing, but you probably can’t buy enough to build a business on it. And promotion, particularly self-promotion, has a similar limitation. Obviously, if you believe in a product or service you must tell people about it and invite them to buy. You owe that to yourself and to customers who need and want your service. Promotion has its place but, in the end, marketing is a different animal. Marketing is about your reputation. It’s about customer satisfaction and retention. It’s about your relationships. Marketing is about letting people know who you are, what you do and what you offer. Never keep yourself a secret! There is no advantage in being shy! Marketing is about YOU more than your product or service. It’s about your level of responsibility and your follow-through. In the end, most marketing is free, in that it comes from being who you are and doing what you do to the best of your ability. Many small businesses could do much better by scrapping their advertising budget entirely and invest the money in themselves, their skills, the quality of their products and their relationships.
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