Marketing

One of the keys to grow a business is marketing.  You always read about marketing budgets being cut by companies during a recession.  Why?  That's easy, it's because there is never a direct correlation between marketing/advertising expenditure and new customers; it's just a bucket of costs without any obvious returns.  It would be wonderful to be able correlate the money spent on marketing to new clients, so you knew that if you spent £100 you get 1 new client, it would be a Utopia, but will never happen.

The power of marketing your business is not to instantly get new clients, but promote your company’s existence within the mind of your potential client.  To let them know you are in the market, to let them know that you have a service they can use; all with the hope that one day, you will tip that balance and they will give you a try. 
But, a one off marketing event is still not enough; you need to build up that sense of longevity.  Few customers will try something new; most will wait to see if you are around in the a few months/years.  They operate under the assumption that if you are still around and trading, then you must be doing something right.

So marketing is crucial to ensure that they don’t forget you exist; regular marketing builds upon this, and grows the confidence with potential clients.

To this end my wife and I spent a fun evening preparing our marketing packs to be handed out this Wednesday, at this year’s first customer training day.