Stop Being a Cheapskate: The Importance of Investing in Marketing

Neal Schaffer: 0:00

I have a very simple question for you today. Why are you so cheap with your marketing? Seriously, let's talk about this in more depth. And I hope to give you a new perspective on thinking about how you spend your marketing budget. On this next episode of The your digital marketing coach podcast. Digital social media content influencer marketing, blogging, podcasting, blogging, tick talking LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SEO, SEM, PPC, email marketing, who there's a lot to cover, whether you're a marketing professional entrepreneur, or business owner, you need someone you can rely on for expert advice. Good thing you've got, Neil, on your side, because Neal Schaffer is your digital digital marketing marketing coach, helping you grow your business with digital first marketing one episode at a time. This is your digital marketing coach, and this is Neal Schaffer. It takes money to make money. You've heard this famous quote, which apparently comes from a Roman playwright from many, many years ago, regardless of where the quote comes from, it has been repeated over and over again. And I am always reminded of it when I hear about businesses or I work with clients is the way we look at money, and how we spend our money visa vie our business. You know, businesses are not created for free, it takes an investment to launch a business, it takes an investment to run a business. But the problem that I'm seeing and I have the same issue is that we're always trying to just do the bare minimum to build the business. And that from a marketing perspective can absolutely backfire on us. So two days ago, I did a webinar with my friends at tailwind on artificial intelligence and marketing. And I use Zoom. And I have the 100 person meetings zoom for my digital first mastermind, and that is being used pretty much for anything I do on Zoom. Now, it is a cheap, you know, monthly, like $15 a month, you know, right now that's like to Starbucks frappuccinos is probably going to cost you $15. But that's what I pay. So I've been doing webinars, like I mentioned, and I would limit them to 100 people. And the reason why I was limiting them to 100 people was because that was the limit of that Zoom meeting package that I had, it was not a zoom webinar package, now announced this webinar and boom, within 24 hours, the 100 seats were filled up. So now it's like, you know what, this is a topic, you know, AI, very hot topic, you know, what would be the cost of actually purchasing investing in the Zoom webinar package, and therefore we can get up to 500 people in the room. So for an extra, I don't know, $50 a month, and it's month to month, I expanded it to 500. And then boom, within two weeks, we filled up the room with 500 attendees. It was a great webinar. Now, the ROI of this is multi fold. But for many companies, it is email address acquisition, right? It's lead generation. So let's look at from my business, let's say it's lead generation, right? People that they come to the webinar, they build a little note I can trust maybe at some point in the future, they convert into my mastermind, a future course or consulting client, they buy my book, whatever it is, but I've just spent $50 to generate 400 leads, how much money do people spend or businesses on the Facebook's and the LinkedIn ads, the cost per clicks the funnel is just to get a qualified lead. And this is just $50. But that's just one example. This was one reminder for myself that I too sometimes am being a cheapskate and what's really, really important today, and I brought up the top topic of artificial intelligence. Because right now we are seeing an explosion in marketing technology revolving around AI. Almost every marketing tool is including some form of AI into their tool. And there are now new tools popping up there is a new tool that I use just for Pinterest for AI. There is a new Twitter AI tool. There is a new LinkedIn AI tool. There's a new YouTube Video Script creation, AI tool. There are a lot of things coming down in the pipeline and that are here today. And they're not free. Right And even when companies are adding the AI functionality, it might be free now, but all of this costs money. It costs money to develop, to maintain, you know, the server space API's that you need to, you know, spend money with open API to get access to their API, whatever it is, it takes money for them as well to run their business and, and we're gonna have to pay for that. But if you're not spending enough money, you miss out on those opportunities. And what's really interesting, right, you're, you're trying to build a 789 figure company, and you're worried about a $10 month tool, or even a 50, or even $100 a month tool. So I always try to rationalize, what is the business that we are trying to build? If I'm a CMO or VP of marketing? What is the role that I am entrusted? Yes, I probably have a bigger budget to work with. But at the end of the day, we're trying to build a bigger business. And the smaller business owner or the entrepreneur to start up, it gets even more clear, right? You know, what impact can every single dollar of our marketing budget have? And in fact, I've worked with companies that have these legacy marketing budgets, where I'd say, they're wasting a lot of money. It's not just about spending money, it's about investing the money in the right areas that can help you grow and scale your business. And at the end of the day, where does every dollar fit into the marketing funnel? So I've seen businesses that, you know, they they're just used to doing so much with, for instance, Google Pay Per Click, they that's all they do. They've never compared that marketing spend with other channels. But what if we were to invest that same into a Facebook ad campaign? Or? Well, let's talk about influencers about influencer marketing, right? Where do we end up? And this leads back to another episode that I live streamed of this podcast, which is why I don't believe in campaigns, I believe in experiments. So this is where it's, you know what, let's set up the experiment. Let's check. And this is how you maximize you're not, you know, it takes money to make money. You don't need to waste money, but you're trying to find the best bang for your buck. But there's also when it comes to the technology, this infrastructure expense that you will need, and you want to be smart with that as well. Now, influencer marketing is another area where I see companies being cheapskates, you know, once again, because they want influencers to do things for them, yet, they're offering very little in return, I get asked all the time, Neil become our affiliate. There's no ROI. I'm, you know, I'm being a commissioned salesperson. When a company asked me to do that, why not say Neil will give you free use of our tool. And if you love the tool, we'd love it, if you could talk about it in social media, or whatever it is, right? Just the way that you approach, the way you spend money can make a huge impact in your marketing, and therefore business success. And the influence. One is really interesting, because I find most companies are absolute cheapskates, they're reaching out to influencers. They're asking, and they're assuming that the influencer will do something for something very little. So ask yourself, you know, what is the value of your product? And the cost of your product is probably very cheap. Some companies don't have big budgets, but they're allowed to give away product, it's just part of, of advertising as well. Why don't you apply that to your relationships with influencers and content creators? I mean, if they're not interested in receiving your product, then chances are, it's not going to be a good collaboration to begin with. So a lot of this is a mindset of how we spend our money. Now, not many of you know, this actually started my career in finance. And I was part of a team that was in charge of budget control for a major semiconductor manufacturer. And every year, we would have hearings with department heads, asking them to clarify, literally every line item of their budget. Well, you know, this is what you spent last year, this is what you want to spend this year, why? And it comes down to let's just forget about what we spend in the past. Let's keep the KPIs and the metrics so that we understand, you know, how successful or how much of a failure it is, but it's really reconstructing a marketing budget on a year to year basis from a zero start. What do we need to hit our strategic objectives for the year or for whatever it is? That is the key thing here? You're spending money anyway. Right? Someone that you know, you're paying someone a six figure salary, yet you're only giving them a few $100 to help them do their work better. That is probably being a cheapskate. So spend money smartly, but don't Avoid doing things because it's an extra $10 a month, or an extra $50 a month, little things like that, or even a few $100 A month depending on the technology, or gifting product, when we talk about influencers, these things can have, when added up can have a huge impact on your business. If invested in in the right way, don't just buy any and every tool out there. But today, with this advent of a maturity of AI and the value that it can bring to your business, because again, it can truly help you scale in many, many ways. And free up a lot of time for more strategic things. You do not want to be a cheapskate even more today, you want to be playing around with the technology. If you only have enough budget to invest one month, then just do one month, figure out what it is how you can use it, what it looks like in the funnel, and how it can help you grow your business. So that is my message for today. Don't be a cheapskate in your marketing, stop cheap marketing instead, do smart marketing. I'm not gonna say smarketing lot of people said that before. But just rethink your mindset about how you spend your marketing budget and the value of every dollar spent. And I think you will make much better decisions with your marketing spent. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The your digital marketing coach podcast. I am here every other week with the solo episodes, basically covering topics like these that I think can add value to your business. Hey, if there's something you know, Neil, what's your thought about this? Or about that? Or Neil? Why haven't you covered this topic? On your podcast, I would love to hear from you. As your digital marketing coach, it is my responsibility. It is my mission to provide you the information you need to grow your business through digital marketing. So reach out to me, Neil Neal schaffer.com is the best way. That's I am the real Neil and e al at Neal schaffer.com. You can reach out to me on social media obviously. And if you need a little bit more help. I don't talk about this in every episode. But I do have a group coaching mastermind called Digital First, you can go to Neal schaffer.com/membership. Or if you want a little bit more hand holding one to one private consulting, that is my fractional cmo service. You can go to Neal schaffer.com/cmo for more information. And that's it for another episode. This is your digital marketing coach Neal Schaffer signing off. You've been listening to your digital marketing coach, questions, comments, requests, links, go to podcast dot Neal schaffer.com. Get the show notes to this and 200 plus podcast episodes and Neal schaffer.com to tap into the 400 Plus blog post that Neil has published to support your business. While you're there, check out Neil's Digital First group coaching membership community if you or your business needs a little helping hand. See you next time on your digital marketing coach.