Investment or Expense?

Doug Smith - Cincinnati Radio Marketing Consultant
Doug Smith - Cincinnati Radio Marketing Consultant

Would you take $5,000 to your financial advisor, have him or her put that money in the stock market, and then exactly one month later cash out your investment?  Of course you wouldn’t.  Why? Because investments take time to mature.

Oh sure, you could put the money into a high risk stock and get lucky, but if your approach to the stock market is “I want a big return and I want it right now” you are going to be disappointed more times than not.

That same methodology works for your advertising.  The money you put into advertising your business should be viewed as an investment, but most business owners seem to view it as an expense.  When you see it as an investment, you are more likely to take a long term approach and have the patience necessary for your advertising to payoff.  When you see it as an expense, you are more likely to take a short term approach and cut or cancel your advertising before it has a chance to take hold.

At this very moment, there are more people not in the market for your product/service than people who are in the market for your product/service.  Think about that for a second.  If you take a short term approach, meaning you run your advertising for a month or two and then stop, you are only talking to the small group of people who are wanting to buy now and ignoring the much larger number of people who will be in the market for you product/service in the future.

By taking a long-term approach, you give yourself the opportunity to talk to all of those potential customers BEFORE they need your product/service…..but you can also grab your unfair share of those who are in the market right now.

Handle your marketing like you do your financial planning and you and your business will be better off in the long run.

Doug Smith is a Senior Account Executive for WREW Rewind 94.9 and www.cincysavers.com in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky.  You can contact Doug at  (513) 535-9123 or dosmith@hubbardinteractive.com

Recommended Posts