50 marketing mistakes / Mistake #11
Mistake #11 of 50Don’t confuse expensive with effective.
A $100 gift isn’t 400 times better than a 25-cent pencil. The right item for the right person wins.
What it costs you
Price isn’t the scoreboard.
Here’s how most people buy marketing.
A salesperson calls. Or they see something shiny at a trade show. It costs a lot, so it must be good.
They buy the thing. Then they try to figure out what to do with it.
A big price tag doesn’t ring your phone. The right person does.
If a big company wastes $50,000 on an ad that doesn’t work, somebody gets a stern email. If you waste $500, that might be your payroll.
A real example
Two landscapers and $1,000
Two landscapers in the same town. Each one has $1,000 to spend on marketing this spring.
The first one buys a half-page ad in a local magazine. It looks great. It runs once.
Next month, the magazine is in the recycling bin.
The second one splits the same $1,000 up. Door hangers on every street where the crew is working. A yard sign at every job. Matching crew T-shirts. Seed packets for every customer. And a little saved to repeat whatever works.
By summer, the first landscaper’s ad is gone. The second one is on doors, on lawns, on the backs of his crew and on kitchen windowsills.
Same money. Very different spring.
The ad wasn’t a bad idea. It did its job once, and then it was done. The second landscaper bought things that keep working.
Why it happens
Why the expensive thing keeps winning the budget
None of those reasons count the people.
Do this instead
Count the people, not the price.
Before you spend a dollar, ask one question: how many of the right people will see this, and how many times? A $2 magnet on the refrigerator of someone who needs you someday gets seen every day, for years. A $500 ad gets seen once, mostly by people who don’t need you. Then it’s gone. When money is tight, spend it in this order.
| The order | Where the money goes |
|---|---|
| Free first | Emails, calls, reviews, referrals. They cost your time, not your money. Do them every week. |
| The customers you already have | Bringing back someone who already trusts you is almost always cheaper than finding a stranger. |
| Things that stick around | Magnets, pencils, shirts, signs. Your name in front of people for months. |
| Bigger moves | Once the cheap stuff is working and you know what your customers respond to. |
| Keep a little back | To repeat whatever works. |
A $100 gift isn’t 400 times better than a 25-cent pencil. The right person beats the right price. Sometimes that’s a good T-shirt they wear for years, for about what a fancy coffee costs. Sometimes it’s a pencil. It’s never the most expensive thing just because it’s the most expensive thing.
Do this today
- 1
Write down your real monthly marketing budget. Even if it’s $50.
- 2
List everything you spent on marketing last year.
- 3
Next to each one, write whether it brought you a single customer you know of.
- 4
Cross out one thing that didn’t, and move that money to something that keeps your name in front of the right people.
You just found money you were wasting. Spend it on the right people, and ask them to call.
From the book
Chapter 3: Every Penny Counts
Starts on page 24. The whole chapter, plus 250+ ways to market your business, in the free book.
Download the free bookIdeas that fix it
Cheap can be brilliant.
Idea 86 · book page 304Magnets$0.75–$2 eachOn the fridge right when the pipe bursts.
Idea 60 · book page 291Promotional Pencils$0.20–$0.50 eachCosts almost nothing and lives in a drawer for years.
Idea 158 · book page 340Basic T-Shirts$6–$15 eachAn advertisement people wear for years.
Idea 90 · book page 306Seed Packets$1–$3 eachGrows into a memory, and fits any 'growth' message.$0Idea 5 · book page 264Reconnect With Past CustomersFreePast customers already know and trust you.Want a plan that puts every dollar in the right hands?
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