Today, let’s talk about marketing and hopefully cut through the many myths and confusion in this field. So the term marketing has a lot of ideologies but then in my quest to dive into this industry, I have come to meet a lot of people with a wrong perception of this word. The misconceptions about marketing are many and today let me talk about some of them. This year has been tough for businesses hence in my opinion most of them do need to market more to improve their customer base. I have visited many businesses in Kakamega town with an aim to help them push their brands and I must say the misconceptions are major blockers.
The first misconception is that small businesses are wasting their money on marketing. Many start-ups feel they need to grow first before marketing the business. 20% of the start-ups I have had a chat with have money to promote their business but are afraid of engaging marketing firms cause of this notion. Their client portfolio in my view is small and has been that way for many months due to the fact that fewer people are aware of their business. In my view, we have to market though it must be rolled out wisely and requires more thought and planning to get better use of your marketing budget. Marketing is long gameplay but in the end, you win.
The second one is that marketing is easy and should be cheap, we all think that just by throwing an advert or a post on social media then that’s it. The truth is that consistency creates a brand and marketing takes commitment. Quality is more important than quantity. I have always asked my clients to go for quality when thinking about advertisements. I recently told someone that a good voice-over artist will charge at minimum 1K per minute and a good 3 Min advert might go for more than 5K, the guy has never responded back, it’s expensive…. right! but depends on the value it’s creating for your business. Anyway, before you avoid remember that not marketing, may look like you are saving money and time, but your audience decreases considerably.
The third one is the notion that you only market when you want to acquire new clients, why the market in areas you are known already, but the budget in a new market. Imagine it’s a wrong notion. If our main aim of marketing is to gain more customers then they will leave you and your business as quickly as the excitement ends, the goal should focus on value creation for longevity, as a business, you need to show they are still useful to you and you are to them after the initial purchase. If your new clients cannot see the value, the business will crumble, please ask Gengetone musicians like Sailors.
The fourth misconception is that marketing should bring in results very fast. I once did an advert for a client in Bungoma and the following day, the C.E.O was asking how many clients I have reached and will be visiting the business. The clinic was set up in 2017 and I did marketing for 2 weeks before I was fired with no pay, in 2020, a client walks into the facility with his whole family and says he saw an advert from my page so he decided to make a visit. Mr. Mwefu calls me that evening to thank me for bringing business to the clinic. He sends 5K as a commission earned from that client. I receive the money and ask myself, how much did he make? Then the following morning a call comes in and he wants us to do business, he is now ready to wait years before the business opens up! My advice is that, when rolling out a marketing campaign, you’re going up against a lot of established competitors who might also be doing marketing so you better adjust your expectations surrounding time accordingly. It took time to build Rome.
Lastly, this notion that quality sales is not near to the truth. Please make quality products and services but advertise too so that you can push them to more clients, that’s why Oppo pays for adverts for products that the public knows its quality and are willing to buy, and by the way check out for Reno6, quality product for content creators! In a nutshell, marketing is diverse and advertising is just the icing on that cake. A marketing plan for your business is important, if it makes sense and you are struggling to push your products and services email me, let us create a comprehensive plan for your business, you will love the ideas we will give you!
©JMS 2021