Don't Invest in Garbage

In my  view, the biggest error made by business small and large is represented by mis-spent capital, unwise investment and wasted money on bad marketing. The second biggest error made by businesses is listening to marketers and consultants who advise on or agree to wasting money on marketing that won't work.

The research is out there. Why isn't it being used? Several reasons:

• Business people think they no more than marketers
• Marketers just want to keep their jobs or make money, so they support bad marketing judgment
• It's the way we've always done it syndrome
• Business people don't believe they have to spend money on marketing until their business fails, and then it is too late.

Here is the most recent marketing research by ICOM, an advertising agency network, as reported in eMarketer. "Marketers worldwide see newspapers waning in influence. ICOM asked its member agencies whether any traditional media choices were on the decline with no chance of recovery as a result of new ways of reaching audiences. Of the responding agencies around the world, 42% said that newspapers were in decline, more than twice as many that named any other media type."

 

When asked which media types showed the most promise, "respondents put blogs, Internet ads and search engine marketing all in the top 10."

Good to know, but only if businesses use the information correctly. But even with this knowledge in hand, execution is often poor and follow-up worse. Again, it goes back to the reasons I list at the beginning of this blog.

Lesson learned: Hire marketers who know the research, who won't go along to get along, and who would rather lose the work then sell you bad services.

Bigger Lesson learned: "A November study by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) found enthusiasm for such integrated campaigns. That study found that US advertising executives rank newspapers, magazines and TV highly for innovation in integrating online media, and for efficacy in driving traffic to advertiser Web sites."

In other words, hire marketers who understand integrated marketing works best and delivers greatest ROI. Using research to launch a tool and wait for the cash register to ring has always been and remains a losing strategy. Tools are meant to be integrated with other tools, and campaigns are meant to be long-term not a single, one-time shotgun blast.